BGU’s Health and Social Care Team collaborate with universities across Europe

The Health and Social Care Team at BGU have embraced the idea that technology advances can bring numerous enriching opportunities across their curricular.

On a number of occasions, they have engaged in meetings with European universities via Microsoft Teams. In November 2024, this involved the University of Szczecin in Poland, and most recently Savonia University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Finland.

BGU’s second year Health and Social care students were able to engage in a remote seminar with students from a postgraduate master’s degree in social work, led by Pirjo Turunen, a Principal Lecturer in Social Sciences at Sanovia University.

The session featured exchanges between students, facilitated by presentations from the Finnish students about their current practice, as all are employed in services across Finland and beyond, including the Ukraine, Vietnam and Nigeria.

Areas of practice presented ranged from services for those affected by gambling and children’s early years services, which focussed on inequalities and a number of other care environments. Discussions were held which compared the approach of services, with students learning how different countries approach similar problems.

Nichola Walsh, Programme Leader for Health and Social Care at BGU, said: “Opportunities like this are a great way for students to apply what they are learning in the classroom to real life, practical situations.

“By sharing different experiences from different areas of the world, we can help and inspire services to move forward and consider alternative approaches to problems.

“We plan to build on this activity within our programmes year on year and have been invited to engage with other programmes across Savonia UAS and beyond.”