Samarbetskommittén för socionomutbildning 25 år. En kortfattad historik 1977-2002

In 1977 there was a radical reform of Swedish universities. According to the reform the six independent schools of social work were incorporated in universities or university colleges. At the same time a new discipline “social work” was established. The independent schools of social work had curricula decided by the government. With the reform this was decentralised. There was a clear risk of getting very divergent study programs and differences in quality. In order to try to get at least some form of common standards the Association was founded in 1977. During the first years much attention was paid to efforts in getting common standards. In the 80s all the programs experienced financial cuts and the Association acted as a pressure group towards the government to obtain more funds. Here the Association demanded an evaluation of the programs with the implicit aim to show that quality requirements could not be met without better funding. Efforts of further training of social workers were also on the agenda during the 80ies. The “liberty reform” of Swedish universities during the first years of the 90ies put once again the question of common standards on the agenda. The last years of the 90ies were characterised by new financial cuts and new demands for an evaluation on a national level. Such an evaluation took place and as a result the Association obtained funds from the National Board of Health and Welfare to launch three national projects aiming at increasing quality and more equal standards. This was first real cooperation between the schools