Social Work students from Minnesota State University Moorhead in the US have paid a visit to the Magee campus of the University of Ulster as part of an educational trip to Ireland.

The students, who were accompanied by Jeremy Carney,Associate Professor and Chair, School of Social Wor kat Moorhead, are all undergraduates working towards a Bachelor ofScience degree in Social work.

As part of their degree programme, they have been doing a comparative study of different social work systems in the US and Europe enabling both Ulster and US students the opportunity to compare best international practice. The high quality of social studies at Ulster is reflected in consistently high scores in the UK National Student Survey over a number of years.

During their visit to Magee, the US visitors met academics as well as professional social workers and had an opportunity to discuss some of the key challenges facing social workers on both sides of the Atlantic.

They were welcomed to Magee by Professor Mary McColgan, Head of School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies who gave an overview of social work programmes offered at Magee.

Professor McColgan said: “We were very pleased to have the opportunity to present students and colleagues from Moorhead with examples of our innovative curriculum and to discuss their views about some of the similarities and differences in social work education and practice between the US and Northern Ireland.”

Professor Carney said he felt the visit was very beneficial and he was delighted that they had had been able to build on the initial links made when they first visited Magee last year.

“It’s always very interesting for both students and lecturers to get a different perspective. I feel we’ve all learned something from our visit to Magee.The feedback from the students who visited here last year was really positive – so much so in factt hat we’d no difficulty getting students to sign up for this year’s trip to Ireland.

“Our students were very impressed with the campus and looking to the future, we’d like to investigate the possibility of our students doing their placements in Ireland, possibly at Magee.”

Caption Professor Mary McColgan, Head of Sociology and Applied Social Studies, with students from Minnesota State University Moorhead who visited the Magee campus of the University as part of an educational trip to Ireland. They were accompanied by Jeremy Carney, Associate Professor and Chair School of Social Work at Moorhead.