ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how neoliberalism and New Public Management strategies influence social work education in Norway, and provides some examples of how social work education can meet neoliberal challenges. Social work education in Norway is an applied academic discipline within universities and university colleges and has been strongly influenced by neoliberal changes in higher education. The education of social workers in the Nordic countries, including Norway, has traditionally followed the national characteristics of the welfare state, with less concern about global transformations. The restructuring of social work education due to the need for new knowledge to address the changing contexts of social work has provided new opportunities for strengthening the anti-oppressive perspectives in the education in the Bachelor programme at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. New theoretical perspectives are necessary to develop a multilevel perspective of marginalisation processes and unequal opportunities among groups in society and to see opportunities for creating new structures for social work practice in Norway.
