Abstract
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Welcome to the 2018 Field Education Special Edition of Advances in Social Work and
Welfare Education. The idea of producing this special edition of Advances originated at a
2015 Field Education Colloquium convened by the NSW Combined Universities Field
Education Group (CUFEG), which is an umbrella organisation for work-based learning
in social work and welfare. (A list of member institutions is appended at the end of this
section.) Historically, CUFEG has been at the forefront of charting new territories in field
education, a crucial area of social work and welfare education, having successfully convened
three Colloquia and collectively negotiated for over 20 years with state-based children’s
and health services. We maintain an anti-competitive stance, striving to cooperate in a
competitive field placement environment. We, as the guest editors, represent the whole
of CUFEG and want to thank our colleagues for their inspiration and contribution, and
to give special appreciation to Maree Higgins who admirably filled the CUFEG Chair
at the beginning phase of this edition. As editors of this special edition, we continue to
represent the CUFEG spirit of collaboration by pooling resources from our three separate
universities during the editorial process. We would like to thank our respective institutions
(University of Wollongong, Western Sydney University and Charles Sturt University) for
their acknowledgement of the importance of this work.