Academic Link between the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Academic Link between the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The Vice-Chancellor, University of Colombo and the Rector, University of Ljubljana signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the 18th of April 2011, at the University of Ljubljana to contribute towards the development of academic, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two universities in the spirit of broadening the already existing cooperation between the Faculty of Social Work of the University of Ljubljana and the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo. 

An Annex to the Memorandum of Understanding was also signed on the same day specifying further collaboration between the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo and the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana in continuing the joint collaborative programme that was started after 2004 tsunami with the need for professional social workers as outlined in the Letter of Intent signed by the two Universities on the 13th of April 2005.

As the first major task under the collaborative programme between the two universities, the Department of Sociology introduced a study stream on Social Work to the students following sociology special degree programme. Six courses jointly designed by the Department of Sociology, University of Colombo and the Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana are offered within the study stream. Up to now all the courses have been delivered by the visiting Professors from the University of Ljubljana together with the academics from the Department of Sociology. There are 37 students in the study stream in all the three years and the first batch of students would be graduating soon.

Contributing to the human resource development in the University of Colombo to support the independent sustainability of social work education, the University of Ljubljana offered two Ph.D scholarships and currently one Lecturer from the Department of Sociology and one Social Work Instructor attached to the Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medicine are following the Ph.d programme at the University of Ljubljana. Two senior academics from the Department of Sociology also had short exposures to social work education at the University of Ljubljana.

Under the collaborative programme, student exchanges have also taken place. Thirteen students from the University of Colombo visited the University of Ljubljana for one month intensive programme in social work and over the years students from the University of Ljubljana visited Sri Lanka for their practice placements under the supervision of the staff, Department of Sociology. The Department of Sociology also assisted the Slovenian students to find appropriate institutions to do their practice placement activities.

With the signing of the fresh MOU and the Annex, the two universities would take efforts to achieve the envisaged objectives and further strengthen the collaboration between the two universities.