The launching of the international programme constitutes a major milestone in the history of the Faculty of Health. The healthcare social worker master’s programme, filling in a major gap, started with 13 students in the 2017/2018 academic year, and this autumn there were 15 new students enrolled in the first year.
“This major has soon become very popular; on the basis of the feedback we receive, this is due to the good reputation of the university, as well as the unique nature of the programme. In one year, the number of applicants doubled, but not everybody met the admission criteria,” Gergely Fábián, general vice dean also in charge of development, told hirek.unideb.hu.
The international healthcare social worker master’s programme is unique not only in our country, but also in Europe: no other school offers a similar major of this level of complexity.
“This is a hybrid programme, a special feature of which is that students can acquire knowledge in the fields of health science and social work at the same time. The two areas are harmonised in both the theoretical and the practical parts of the programme,” the vice dean emphasised.
International students participating in the two-year-long, tuition-based programme can, in addition to clinical social work, also learn skills in the fields of the rehabilitation of persons of altered working capabilities, people with disabilities, as well as care for the elderly.
Since this is a master’s programme, all students already have an undergraduate degree, from such diverse fields as medicine, pharmacy, social pedagogy, psychology, nursing, and even mathematics. The majority of the students are from Nigeria, but they also come to the programme from a variety of other countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Singapore, Mongolia, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
“In these countries, social work typically has no traditions. Even in countries that offer certain social services, it is often not harmonised with healthcare. As a result, graduates from the programme will be pioneers in their own countries in the field of healthcare social work: they will establish and then elaborate the details of such services,” said Gergely Fábián.
Campus life in Nyíregyháza has become much more lively, thanks to the contingent of international students, who fit into their new environment quite well, thanks to the mentor student programme, and establish good rapport with the Hungarian students. They have come to like the city, and they are happy to participate in the community-building programmes of the Faculty and the Frigyes Verzár Honours College. In addition, they are also pleased to share their culture with the students and staff of the Faculty of Health.
Many of them came to Hungary with spouses or even children, and some even started a family here. Both parents of Victor, who is only 3 months old and was already born in Hungary, are students in the master’s programme. In all likelihood, he is the youngest “non-official student” of the University of Debrecen, since the Nigerian couple, in line with the traditions of their home country, spent every minute with their baby. They do not leave him to others during the classes either, which means that the entire family participates in the lectures and seminars.
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