UJ’s Associate Professor elected president of ASASWEI

Prof Adrian D van Breda, Associate Professor and Head of Department: Social Work at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), was elected President of the Association of South African Social Work Education Institutions (ASASWEI) for the next two years. ASASWEI is an association of all social work academics in the country and has close ties with partner associations in Africa and internationally.

“This positions UJ centrally within social work education, which I hope will contribute to the growth of the work that we do and increased recognition of UJ as a leader in academia,” says Prof Van Breda on his new appointment.

Prof Van Breda takes the new office with a strategic vision to address the needs and challenges faced by social work educators and social education in South Africa as a whole. He says: “These challenges include graduates taken up for employment; issues of senior academics retiring; and the need to advance NRF rankings for Social Work. We need to be the voice of social work educators on issues nationally, regionally and internationally.”

Mrs Varosh Nadesan, a lecturer also from the University’s Social Work was elected ASASWEI Treasurer.

Moreover, seven of the staff from Prof Van Breda’s department, with three postgraduate students (two of whom were funded through Prof Van Breda’s NRF grant), have recently returned from presenting papers at the International Conference on Social Work and Social Development in East London, this October.