Observations upon research carried out by post-graduate students on the M.A Comparative European Social Studies. This article follows an earlier article (Lawrence and Reverda, Social Work in Europe, Vol. 5. No. 3, 1998) which discussed the origin and development of the MACESS course. This article explores the complexity of comparative research as a methodology for exploring social work as a contribution to developing European perspectives on Social Policy and Social Professional Work Theory and Practice.
Article written by Sue Lawrence and Nol Reverda, Directors of the Macess programme. The validation of awards and courses within higher education has traditionally and, to a great extent, continues to be a national issue, with each country using its own protocol for determining standards and academic levels, and validating courses according to its nationally recognised and agreed system. Institutions in some countries, however, are able to validate courses which are delivered in an institution in another country. This practice has led to some useful collaborative arrangements in developing European postgraduate programmes for the social professions, particularly in countries where education for social professionals takes place outside of the university system, for example, in The Netherlands. Largely as a result of such collaboration, facilitated by the Erasmus programme, there is now a proliferation of courses for social professionals, which have ‘European’ in their title or as a major component of the course content. What, then, makes a programme ‘European’?
