International Association of Schools of Social Work
Regional Report- Asia PacificJanuary to June 2022
APASWE Board
After elections late last year the newly constituted Board has been meeting this year and includes thefollowing members:
A/Prof David Rose- President (Australia)
Prof Takashi Fujioka- Treasurer (Japan)
Dr Jowima Reyes- Secretary (Philippines)
A/Prof Kana Matsuo (Japan)
Prof Tulshi Kumar Das (Bangladesh)
Dr Mohd Haizzan Yahaya (Malaysia)
Prof Zulkarnain Hatta – Immediate Past President (Malaysia)
There is one Board vacancy which is currently in the process of being filled by co-option.
Membership
At the beginning of this reporting period membership numbers were:▪ Institutional members: 427▪ Individual members: 132▪ Affiliate members: 2Increasing and maintaining membership across this large region continues to be a challenge with asubstantial proportion of institutional members coming from Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
A major focus of the Board is increasing membership from the many countries across the region thathave rapidly expanding numbers of social work education programs.
Asia-Pacific Joint Regional Workshop- 19/2/2022
A joint APASWE and IFSW-AP workshop on “Examining the Updated Global Standards for Social Work
Education and Training” was conducted with a range of presenters from across the region reporting on
implementation of the Standards in their country.
APASWE Representation at Regional Events
The President represented APASWE and IASSW with presentations at the following regional events:▪ Presentation on the “Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training” at theAssociation of Indonesian Social Welfare and Social Work Education (ASPEKSI) workshop on
Reviewing the Core Curriculum for Professional Social Work Education in Indonesia 28th to 29thJune, 2022.

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Presentation on “Social Work Education: New Frontiers in Asia Pacific” at the Thailand
Association of Social Work Education (TASWE) workshop New Directions of Social Work
Education in Asia and the Pacific, 9th June, 2022.

Biennial Asia Pacific Regional Social Work Conference
The next Biennial regional conference will be taking place in Iran in 2023.
Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development Theme One- Reporting
IASSW and IFSW-AP are jointly working on gathering feedback from the region on progress towards theGlobal Agenda for Social Work and Social Development Theme One for the Global Taskforce. A form forwritten feedback is being distributed to social work educators and social work practitioner
representative bodies across the region and two regional webinars with short presentations by multiple
presenters on the theme are scheduled for 20/7/22 UTC 08.00 and 21/7/22 UTC 10.00.
ASEAN Intersectoral Regional Conference on Strengthening Social Work 26-28 April 2022
Several Board members attended and participated in this major regional conference on strengtheningsocial work in ASEAN countries. The conference had high level government representation from ASEAN
countries and several key issues were addressed including increasing the professional social work
workforce, regulation and capacity building of the social work workforce and developing social work
education in the region to continue to build the social work workforce.
Special Edition of Social Work Education journal on Asian Social Work Education
A special edition of the journal on the current state of social work education in Asia has been announcedfor 2024. A call for abstracts to be considered for inclusion of articles in the special edition close 31stOctober, 2022.
Focus for remainder of 2022
Key areas the Board will be focusing on for the remainder of 2022 including membership, establishing astrategy around engaging social work students across the region with APASWE and each other andcontinuing the webinar series on Indigenizing social work education and development of a possible
publication based on the series.

David Rose
President- APASWE