Sharing Experience and Learning in Doing International Research: The Case of the Erasmus Mundus ADVANCES Program

Abstract

Th e article explores the experience of implementing the international studying program ADVANCES (Advanced Development in Social Work) in terms of the challenges and dilemmas in designing and realizing joint education & research programs. Th e program exposes the diff erence between 'the talk' and 'the walk' in the global social work concept building of human and institutional capacities, on the one hand, and merging theory and practice in preparation to contemporary social work profession, on the other. It also brings to light the process of integrating models and understandings of how international collaboration in higher education could look like (and be delivered worldwide). Th e ADVANCES program, which integrates the theories and practices that were formerly approached separately in social work, creates a context for the European (and, by extension, international) status of social work, while its respective components, such as the experience of social work institutions and their benefi ciaries, contribute a new, global value to the discussion by demonstrating the 'diverse universe' of helping professions off ers.