The BA Community Development team at Glasgow University welcomed in the second week of January 2015, for the 2nd year running, students and staff from the University of Cork, who were on a week-long study visit  to Glasgow.

These visits were made possible as a result of the BACD team attending  PASCAL's first Learning Cities conference held in Cork September 2013.  This conference drew the attention of academics, civic partners and  community organisations to the EcCoWell concept which has been developed  by Peter Kearns within PASCAL International Exchanges (PIE) and further  developed in the Learning Cities Networks. And like most conferences the  opportunity to mix and mingle with others was spot on and as a result.

The University of Glasgow now has a really good relationship with our  colleagues and counterparts in the University of Cork, evidenced by  the study visits. The post graduate students from Cork who are studying for their Higher  Diploma in Social Policy got the opportunity to visit a number of  community projects that are supported by the BA Community Development  students on placement/ practice. The visits included students, staff  and members of Flourish House (International Clubhouse model) whose  focus is on supporting those affected by mental health issues, Ruchazie Community Church who provide support and assistance to the local  community in many guises and finally ng homes who provided a very  insightful journey through the North of Glasgow in terms of the work  carried out specifically through the Regeneration team.

The students  said afterwards that they really enjoyed hearing about the work that  goes on in each of the projects and enjoyed the question and answer session at the end of each visit.

In continuing to build the relationship between both institutions a return visit to Cork  is being organised to take over approximately 18 BA Community  Development students in mid June. This will be an opportunity for them  to see Community Development in a different context as well as meeting  up with students to exchange ideas and knowledge.