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Disability and Work in Timor-Leste
A multidisciplinary field school
Are you interested in getting out of the classroom and applying your research skills in the real world? Join leading researchers from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre and receive $3,000 to learn about disability and work in Timor-Leste, including a two-week mobility component in country.
What: A two-week multidisciplinary field school in Timor-Leste over the winter break
Where: Dili and surrounds, Timor-Leste
When: 17 July – 30 July 2023 inclusive (S2CIJL July Intensive)
Who: Undergraduate students at the University of Sydney in the following disciplines: Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Social Work, and Work and Organisational Studies
Why: Leave the classroom behind for a hands-on field school studying disability and work in Timor-Leste! Learn about Timor-Leste through a unique lens, boost your cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research skills, and meet students from other disciplines. You will receive 6 academic credit points for participating in this program. This program is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s New Colombo Plan (NCP). Successful applicants will become NCP scholars and receive a $3,000 scholarship to help with costs associated with your participation in this program. A limited number of SSEAC-funded grants are available to international students who do not meet the NCP criteria.
About this program
This field school focuses on disability and work in Timor-Leste. As Southeast Asia’s newest nation, Timor-Leste is still building up the policy, infrastructure and support services needed to support people with disabilities in the workforce, with additional challenges presented by the fact that the majority of these people live in rural areas and are self-employed through subsistence farming. Within this context, this field school will consider the relationship between disability and work from a structural perspective, while also taking into account employer attitudes and informal support services through, for example, NGOs. We will engage with key stakeholders within Timor’s employment and health sectors, as well as working with students from Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL).
This program is a full 6-credit point elective offered to students from Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Social Work, and Work and Organisational Studies. This cohort of students is uniquely placed to consider the relationship between disability, employment, formal and informal support structures, and employment policies as they relate to people with disabilities in Timor-Leste. Students will be encouraged to examine the relationship between disability and work from a cross-disciplinary perspective and supported to develop and design their own in-country collaborative research projects. On doing so, they will apply the skills and knowledge they have developed in their disciplines and apply them in a Timor-Leste context. Before departure, they will undertake targeted training on how to work with students from other disciplines to maximise solutions-oriented outcomes as well as learning about the country context.
Central to the Project’s ability to achieve these objectives is the in-country component, which involves seminars, community site visits and experiential learning opportunities including language study. Students will then work in small interdisciplinary groups to develop a research question related to their area of interest and then design a research project, which they will undertake in the final week. This well-established model allows students to bring their own perspectives to a research problem while also collaborating across cultures and disciplines.
This field school draws on SSEAC’s flagship short-term mobility format, which emphasises interdisciplinarity, cross-cultural learning, and local partnerships. This innovative approach to mobility gives students a chance to learn from each other while engaging in meaningful and structured ways with diverse partners. Student feedback is that SSEAC field schools are transformative and directly contribute to new networks and partnerships. As a result, this mobility project has the potential to be a profoundly rewarding experience, not only promoting deep student engagement during the field school itself but also contributing to longer term engagement with Timor-Leste and greater awareness of disability and employment issues in Southeast Asia.
Group research projects
The interdisciplinary research project is a unique opportunity to work across disciplines and cultures, and to delve more deeply into a specific issue relating to social justice. Students will work together to develop and design their own research project; collect and analyse data; and present the results of their findings in the final week of the field school.
Benefits of participating in this program
This is a unique opportunity for you to develop and apply your research skills in an international and interdisciplinary setting. A distinguishing feature of this program is the opportunity to work with students from other disciplines. Outcomes may include:
- Building strong networks that can be sustained post-program
- Engaging in cross-cultural collaboration, experiencing the value of working in diverse teams in new settings and exploring new perspectives and approaches to learning and research
- Enhancing cultural competence, a graduate attribute, to help facilitate growth in cultural understanding across personal and professional interactions
- Achieving program outcomes by engaging in a shared project which requires research, understanding local realities, engages with local actors and is based on deep understanding of the realities of life in each location
- Engaging in design thinking or other structured activities to use problem solving, creativity, and critical thinking to achieve a project outcome
- Gaining an interdisciplinary understanding of political, economic, legal, ethno-cultural, geographical and developmental issues in Timor-Leste through the lens of disability and work.
Students are invited to lodge their application by midnight AEDT, Sunday 12 March 2023.
Additional information
To be eligible you must:
- Be enrolled in the second or third year of a Bachelor’s degree program at the University of Sydney
- Be studying in one of the approved disciplines: Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Social Work, and Work and Organisational Studies*
- Have space in your degree for a 6-credit point elective
- Be available to attend two days of pre-departure training on 1 and 2 June 2023, and be available for the entire length of the mobility program in Timor-Leste (arriving in-country no later than Sunday 16 July, and departing no sooner than Sunday 30 July)
* Students from other disciplines may be eligible to participate provided we have space in the program. If this is of interest, please check with SSEAC staff before applying.
Note
- Students from low socio-economic backgrounds and those who have not undertaken exchange or field school opportunities in the past are particularly encouraged to apply (though this is not a prerequisite).
- This program is open to domestic students only.
- This course is an elective and does not form a compulsory component of any degree. (It may count towards some majors – please discuss directly with SSEAC and your course coordinator).
- This unit is not suitable for first year students.
- This Unit requires Departmental Permission to enrol. Students must first apply. They are then shortlisted and invited to attend an interview. The interview process seeks to identify the most suitable candidates and ensure an equal representation of students from different disciplines. Students are required to demonstrate that they have suitable competencies in cross-cultural awareness and teamwork in order to be admitted to the program. Please do not enrol in this Unit unless you have been invited by SSEAC staff to do so.
- Students from Occupational Therapy will enrol in ASNS2669 (Field Study of Southeast Asia) and can request permission to add it towards their major. Please consult with your course director and SSEAC staff for further information.
- Students from Psychology will enrol in ASNS2669 (Field Study of Southeast Asia) as an elective. Please consult with your course director and SSEAC staff for further information.
- Students from Social Work will enrol in SCWK3005 Field Education 1. This is a Compulsory Unit of Study (24 credit points) in which students must complete 420 hours in a social work field of practice. Students would participate in the field school (210 hours would count as placement) from 17-30 July inclusive. From 1 August – 27 October 2023, students would undertake the other 210 placement hours, using this time to complete field education school assignments, develop learning plan, participate in external supervision sessions, other Timor-Leste research tasks as directed, and attend placement classes as follows:
1. Monday 14 August 2023 (9-12)
2. Monday 28 August 2023 (9-12)
3. Monday 11 September 2023 (9-12)
4. Monday 25 September 2023 (9-12)
5. Monday 9 October 2023 (9-12)
6. Monday 23 October 2023 (9-12)
Please consult with your course director and SSEAC staff for further information.
- Students from Work and Organisational Studies will enrol in ASNS2669 (Field Study of Southeast Asia) and can request permission to add it towards their WOS major; alternatively, they may be able to take ASNS2669 as an elective through Table A or Table S. Please consult with Warren Gregory (Manager, Programs – Business School) and SSEAC staff for further information.
- Participation, ongoing 10%
- Annotated bibliography, 1000 words, 20%
- Weekly reflection diary, 1500 words, 20%
- Group research presentation, 20 minutes, 20%
- Essay, 2000 words, 30%
- New Colombo Plan scholarships
This program is funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s New Colombo Plan (NCP). Successful applicants will become NCP scholars and receive a $3,000 scholarship to help with costs associated with your participation in this program.
- Grants for international students
A limited number of SSEAC-funded grants are available to international students who do not meet the NCP criteria. If you are an international student and interested in finding our more about funding support for this field school, please contact us at sseac@sydney.edu.au.
- OS-HELP
OS-Help is available for all in-country programs. To check your availability, click here.
Amounts for 2023 have not yet been confirmed. You can use the following information as a guide.
In 2022, successful applicants can select from the following amounts to borrow per six-month study period.
- non-Asian destinations: $2,000; $4,000; $7,100
- Asian destinations*: $2,500; $5,000; $8,519
If you are taking a relevant and endorsed Asian-language course before studying in Asia, you can also apply for a supplementary OS-HELP loan of $1,133.
- 12 March 2023 (Week 3 of S1): Applications close
- Weeks commencing 20 and 27 March: Interviews (by disciplinary leads)
- Week commencing 3 April 2023: Offers are made
- 1–2 June 2023 : Pre-departure training
- 17–30 July inclusive: Field school dates
Note: Applicants must be available for a short (up to one hour) interview in the weeks commencing 20 or 27 March. This interview may be online or face to face depending on circumstances.
Students in Occupational Therapy, Psychology, Social Work, and Work and Organisational Studies are invited to lodge their application by midnight AEDT, Sunday 12 March 2022.
If you are in another discipline and interested in being considered for a possible second round of applications, please email us at sseac@sydney.edu.au.
In the application form, you will be asked to provide the following information:
- Current GPA/WAM
- Have you previously received New Colombo Plan funding? (150 words)
- Have you travelled to Southeast Asia before? In what capacity? (150 words)
- Why do you want to participate in this mobility program? (250 words)
- Why do you think you would be a good fit for this mobility program? (250 words)
- What do you hope to personally gain from this mobility program? (250 words)
- What are your expectations of this course? (250 words)
For more information or if you have any questions, please contact the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (sseac@sydney.edu.au). Please ensure you read all the information on this page first.
- Places are limited to 16 University of Sydney students.
- Students are required to organise their own flights to and from Timor-Leste.
- Students are required to ensure they have an appropriate visa to enter Timor-Leste.
- Students are required to ensure they meet all vaccination requirements to travel to, in and from Timor-Leste.
- This field school will run in the July Intensive (S2CIJL) 2023.
Photo credit: Yuichi Ishida for UNDP Timor-Leste via Flickr