| المستخلص: |
The journey of social work profession in Palestine started in 1971 when it was introduced to the Palestinian community through one of the teaching colleges in Jerusalem; Hin Al-Husseini College for Girls (Faraj, 2014; Faraj & Abu- Ras, 2013). At the time, there has been no single university in Palestine (Baramki, 1996). Bethlehem University was the first higher education institution in Palestine that started to offer BSW degree in 1974 (one year after its establishment), then followed by Al-Quds University in 1983, and other three universities followed the same steps (Faraj and Abu-Ras, 2013). Palestine has never had its national independence and has always been a conflict zone due to the everlasting resistance to the colonial powers and their agents in the region who used to rule the country for their own interests. The history of the country under the Ottoman Empire (1516- 1917), the British Mandate (1916-1948), The Israeli Colonial Occupation (1948 – 1994), witnessed a variety of ruling policies and laws that shaped and reshaped every single aspect of life of the Palestinian citizens, including the quality of tertiary education (Ramahi, 2015; Hashweh & Hashweh,1999). For the people, who lost its livelihood under those occupiers, education has become the main refuge and strategy towards a more secure future for the new generations. As such, the higher education in Palestine exemplifies a valuable source for every family towards the end of higher sense of security. The quality of tertiary education in Palestine has always been a challenging issue to policy-makers, graduates, professionals and community at large since the economic returns for the Palestinian families becomes at stake after 4- 6 years of investment in their sons and daughter. However, the political instability, globalization, the donors’ policies have left the answer to this question open as of the present time. The quality of social work education, as provided by the higher education institutions in the country, has been researched for the first time in 2012 (by Faraj, Z., 2012) as perceived by 213 service providers in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and for the second time in 2018 (by Faraj, Z., Laham, Y., and Nabahin, M.). Despite of the six years difference between the two studies, the findings were quite similar. Another research was conducted by Ibrahim, Q., (2017) on the challenges facing the social work education in Palestine as perceived by social work students in the West Bank, which yielded in similar findings. Social work education in Palestine is challenged by westernized curriculum, limited competencies of SW educators, poor quality of field training outcomes, very limited level of coordination between social work programs in the five universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, inadequate admission policies to social work programs, outdated text books and poor libraries, very limited policydriven scientific research production in the field of social work, and poor linkages/ synergies with labor market demands and requirements. The limited access to PG studies in social work field, for many reasons (mainly financial and foreign language proficiency), resulted in incompetent cadre to teach social work and conduct the needed research. Any efforts to indigenize the social work curricula in Palestine, maneuvering the its practice and interventions towards localized modalities, finding responsive social work education to labor market demands, and many other strategies will not be attainable without competent social work research (ers) in place, integrated and coordinated social work programs in the country, and more rigorous admission policies that go beyond the profitability of universities, that are following neoliberal policy agenda in the country.
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