Training Scheme for Master of Social Work (MSW) Professional Degree Students of School of Sociology

Master of Social Work program is a professional degree program that is established to meet the needs of our nation’s economic and social development. This training scheme is established based on the realistic demand of Chinese society, based on the general rules of graduate education of social work discipline, based on the characteristics of professional degree education, and draws on the experience of developed countries and regions on their training of high-caliber professional social work talents.

I Training objectives    

This program aims at training high-caliber, practical, professional, and all-round talents, who hold a “people oriented” and fair value, who like helping others, who master the theories and methods of social work, familiar with our nation’s social policy, have strong abilities in social work planning, implementing, evaluating, and research, master a foreign language, and can provide social service and social administration to different groups of people and in different areas.

II Target Students    

Our target students are those who have a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work or from relevant subjects, or those who have a Bachelor’s degree in other subjects but have some practical experience in social work.  

III Program Duration  

Flexible program duration, can be either full-time or part-time. The program duration for full-time study is 2 years; the program duration for part-time study is 3-4 years.  

IV Training Mode  

1.     Credit System is implemented. Students should attend the exams of prescribed courses organized by the university, and those who pass the exams can get the credits for that course; the prescribed amount of credits have to be earned before they can write their academic dissertation; The oral defense of their academic dissertation has to be passed first, then they can apply for the conferment of a Master of Social Work professional degree according to the prescribed procedures.

2.     The teaching activities include various forms of course lectures, case studies, and professional internships, and it pays much attention to the practices. The practical courses can be conducted through case analysis, and the training of social work practical skills should be enhanced, while also paying attention to the training of research abilities.

3.     Pay attention to the internship activities. At least 600 hours’ professional internships are required. Make good use of both the supervision of the university and the outside institution, and improve the quality of internship education.

4.     Establish the supervisor group, make use of the “collective cultivation”. The supervisor group consists not only of professors and associate professors who have the qualification of supervising Master students, but also of high-caliber social work talents from social service and administration offices; Implement the double-supervisor system, which combines the supervision of full-time faculty within the university and those high-caliber social work talents who have practical working experience and research abilities.

V Curricular Design and Credits  

At least 34 credits are required for MSW students, among them 18 credits are for compulsory courses, 8 credits are for elective courses, and 8 credits are for practice activities.  

Those who have the equivalent educational level as the regular degree-holders, or those whose academic backgrounds are from a different major, should take and pass two supplementary courses, which are mainly the core courses from the Bachelor Degree program of social work. There is no credit for the supplementary courses.  

Curricular design is as follows:

（3）Social Work Internship（8 credits）
 

Social work internship is compulsory, and should be conducted under the guidance of the “professional councilor”, and the internships should be finished within two years. For those who majored in Social Work in their undergraduate studies, at least 600 hours of internship are required, and for those who did not major in Social Work in their undergraduate studies, at least 800 hours of internship are required. The internships take up a total of 8 credits.  

VI Academic Dissertation  

Students should finish their academic dissertation independently under the guidance of their supervisors.  

The form of the academic dissertation can be either one of the three: (1) Project Design and Evaluation. Students can choose a specific social service and management project under the guidance of their supervisors, and write a complete project design and evaluation report, covering the whole process of project design, implementation, and result evaluation; (2) Practice Research. Students can conduct a research under the guidance of their supervisors, on the methods of social work practice, or on a specific knowledge area of social work practice, and verify and develop the methods and knowledge of social work practice during the actual social service. (3) Policy Research. Students can write research papers on social policy under the guidance of their supervisors.  

The academic dissertation should be evaluated and reviewed by at least two experts who have professional titles at least equivalent to associate professors, and at least one of the experts should be from practical working areas. The assessment of academic dissertation should pay special attention to the author’s ability to apply the theories and methods of social work to solve practical problems.

Students should finish and pass the evaluation of all the prescribed contents of this training scheme, before they attend the oral defense for their academic dissertation. The Oral Defense Committee should consist of 3-5 experts, one of which must have rich experience in social work practice, and have senior professional title.  

VII Degree Conferment  

Those who have finished the prescribed course studies and internship practice activities, gained the required amount of credits, passed the oral defense of their academic dissertation, and passed the evaluation of the university’s Degree Conferment Committee, will be awarded the professional degree of Master of Social Work, as well as the graduation certificate for their Master studies.