I caught up with Dr Maureen Cole, Dean of the Faculty for Social Wellbeing a couple of weeks ago to try and recognise better how she understands the social sector and how the Faculty she has been leading for these last four years is responding to these needs.

I must have known Dr Cole for almost 25 years.  She has always struck me as a highly dedicated academic with a passion for social justice. She is principled and a foremost quality that radiates is her fair-mindedness.  She started her career as a social worker at Caritas before taking up a lecturing post at the University of Malta in 1988. She was at the forefront to implement, together with a number of other professionals and academics, an Action Research Project that saw one of the most significant transformations in the provision of service delivery in the disability sector (in fact it impelled the setting up of the CDAU).  This national project was a linchpin in introducing notions of multi-disciplinarity and developed a model whereby academia can be intrinsically linked and responsive to public policy.  This project also created a silent evolution in the disability sector, probably one of its most significant transformations in service delivery in these last 40 years.  Concepts like partnerships, involvement of service users in service design, luring different ministries, departments and service providers to work together, were still alien concepts that were triggered following this nation-wide project.  This venture has also added significance because it surfaced the spirit that has always guided Maureen, namely; collaboration, enterprise and teamwork – with the ‘cause’ well-placed in mind.  

Maureen was also at the forefront to have social work embedded as a profession and consequently a law that recognises this noble profession I know very closely. She has contributed immensely to the development of social work as a warranted profession.  Now-a-days social work is one of the most sought after professions in welfare. 

Maureen embodies the notion of academic-activist as her engagement doesn’t end within the confines of the lecture room.   On the 1st August 2012, she was appointed Dean of the newly established Faculty for Social Wellbeing and continues to occupy this position to date.  Maureen’s suitability in this post can be seen in the various roles she occupied in the social sector over the years which she has held and continues to hold at the University of Malta and on a national level. In fact, she sat on the University’s Gender Issues Committee (1994-1998), has held an appointment as Alternate Adviser on sexual harassment since 1994 and as Rector’s delegate for International Students’ Wellbeing between 2006-2012. She also sat on the University’s Admissions Board for a number of years and on various National Boards and Committees including; the Bioethics Consultative Committee; the Board of Inquiry which investigated the death of a prisoner at the Police Lock-up; the Commission on the Future of the Family (1997-1998); the Malta Social Work Profession Board (2004-2010).  She currently Chairs the National Institute for Childhood which is a research entity of the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society (2014-to date).

With Maureen Cole I spoke about the way the Faculty for Social Wellbeing has developed and how it now encapsulates nine departments that represent an array of disciplines; Counselling, Criminology, Disability Studies, Family Studies, Gender Studies, Gerontology, Psychology, Social Policy and Social Work, Youth and Community Studies.  The University values immensely this 6^th largest Faculty numbering almost 1,000 students and some 25 courses in its first 4 years of existence. 

When I asked Maureen what is the benefit of having all these departments ‘under the same roof’ she answers that ‘we speak the same language’!  She continues to add that ‘synergies are of great benefit, not only for academics and the administrative staff that support them but also for the sector itself’.  It is highly probable that once our students leave University following graduation they would be working side-by-side.  She says that it is for this reason that working together even when still at University is good preparation of what happens once people hit the ground running following graduation.  She adds that it is a Faculty that managed to get most of the social sciences together even though this initiative had been pledged for some time.  Maureen also spoke about the incredible journey this faculty has done in a considerably short span of time, a faculty strengthened by a common identity and a sense of belonging. This collegiality can be seen from the innumerable over-arching initiatives that this faculty has been engaged in; a new BA in Social Wellbeing Studies, a text on Social Wellbeing that is being edited by three academics coming from three different departments but seeing the involvement of over 50 academics across the faculty, scholarship collaboration amongst different departments and joint research projects amongst many other.  It is a Faculty that is offering an array of Certificate, Diploma, Bachelor, Master and Doctoral courses. The way this faculty has developed in a relatively short period of time is thrust by a deep sense of duty and passion.  It is with serenity, composure and poise that such a young faculty attempts to address the difficult challenges that people come across in life.  Maureen Cole during the interview insists that it was with the good will of all those involved that so much work and so much success has been registered in a relatively short period of time.  In all probability, one of the secrets is that all seemed to have valued multi-disciplinarily as an added value and were willing to take the plunge.  I also believe, from what Maureen has said that the connection that so many academics have to the grassroots movements gives added motivation to do things right.  The placements, the on-going dialogue, the link with the community, the contribution and support to NGOs , the advisory roles all keep academics in check and focused on the ‘cause’.  The interesting blend of young and seasoned academics together with the immense support of a committed academic support network all contribute to an effective and successful model.      

Maureen Cole also stated that ‘she realises the importance of providing the best possible to our students even in terms of mentoring and support and also the need to ensure the wellbeing of all the staff’.  She claims that, ‘even though the core principles of welfare are not dead we need to be vigilant of a neo-liberal society that has become so much more competitive and less gentle with the people who are in need, who are at the margins, who need to be protected and supported.’  However, Maureen is positive as well in stating that, ‘welfare is still thriving albeit it is not an easy task and we need to keep responding to the complexities that people are faced with.’ She adds, ‘...through the work with students and the commitment to research in the area of social wellbeing we would like to give our contribution towards a more just, unprejudiced and inclusive community’.