External summary

Social work seeks to understand people in the context of their wider social environment and to use this understanding to help promote social change. The University of Edinburgh has provided training for social workers from 1918 and has, since then, been a forerunner in the provision of social work education. Today, the MSW offers generic social work training over two years to equip students to enter practice in a broad range of social work settings. We provide training that is grounded in a rigorous social science knowledge base and to equip students with the skills in critical thinking that will allow them to adapt to the ever-changing world of social work practice. We work closely with local authority and voluntary social work providers to maintain close links between theory and practice; practice placements are integral to the programme. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 35% of our research in ???Social Work, Social Policy & Administration??? was rated 3*, ???internationally excellent??? and a further 30% was rated 4*, ???world leading???, placing the University fourth in the UK for the unit of assessment. The programme is accredited by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and students who successfully complete the programme are eligible for registration as social workers with the SSSC.

Educational aims of programme

The broad standards for professional social work practice, as set by the SSSC, are as follows:

1. Prepare for, and work with, individuals, families, carers, groups and communities to assess their needs and circumstances
2. Plan, carry out, review and evaluate social work practice with individuals, families, carers, groups, communities and other professionals
3. Assess and manage risk to individuals, families, carers, groups, communities, self and colleagues
4. Demonstrate professional competence in social work practice
5. Manage and be accountable, with supervision and support, for their own social work practice within their organisation
6. Support individuals to represent and manage their needs, views and circumstances

Specific educational aims for social work at the University of Edinburgh are:

• To co-create/co-produce a University of Edinburgh Social Work graduate who will be curious, concerned about social justice, research-minded, a critical thinker who is able to exercise practical judgment; someone with good people skills, who understands change, is reflexive and committed to advocacy.
• To enable students to act in an increasingly complex world and complex work environments where frameworks for understanding and effecting change are contested and uncertain.
• To provide a curriculum in which principles of learning teaching and assessment are constructively aligned
• To provide a curriculum that builds upon students??? professional development needs from the stage of becoming a social work student to the point of entering the world of professional practice.
• To use an Enquiry and Action Learning (EAL) mode of delivery to provide students with authentic learning opportunities to prepare them for professional practice

Programme outcomes: Knowledge and understanding

• The contexts and domains within which social work is practised
• The social science knowledge base that informs social work practice
• Evidence and research as it applies to social work
• Legislation and policy in relation to social work
• The ethical base underpinning social work practice
• Research and evaluation theories, methods and approaches
• Competence in assessed social work practice

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in research and enquiry

• The application of analytical, conceptual, critical and empirical methods to the study of professional practice in social work
• Working alongside others to gather and make sense of information within an EAL model
• Using, and later undertaking own, research into aspects of social work theory and practice
• Structuring and presenting critical analysis and argument

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal and intellectual autonomy

• independent learning
• problem formulation and solving
• self-evaluation

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in communication

• Written communication skills
• Oral and visual presentation skills
• International understanding

Programme outcomes: Graduate attributes - Skills and abilities in personal effectiveness

• time management
• working under pressure
• teamwork
• self-evaluation and assessment
• reflexivity

Programme outcomes: Technical/practical skills

• information retrieval and research skills
• numeracy skills as required by the SSSC
• computing skills as required by the SSSC

Programme structure and features

The MSW is undertaken on a full-time basis over two years.
Prospective students must possess a first degree in any subject plus at least one year???s experience of social work practice.
Students will amass 180 academic credits at level 11 within the SCQF framework over the course of each of the two years. Progression from Year One to Year Two will normally depend on the successful completion of all of the credits for Year One. To progress to the dissertation and hence the full Masters award students normally need to obtain at least 50% in first year coursework.
The structure of the programme is outlined in the table below

Delivery of academic learning will be, principally, through an Enquiry and Action Learning (EAL) model, whereby students are required to construct their own learning based around practice examples. This involves them meeting with key informants in the field to gain practice grounded insights into the case study materials. This mode of learning also involves groupwork and the case studies drawn upon will be supported by lecture inputs to locate cases within relevant social science and policy, legal and ethical contexts. Students are expected to attend and contribute to the EAL group tasks and to tutorial groups. They will take forward their learning through independent study. Online learning will be facilitated through Learn, the University???s online system. Additional reading around a topic will be provided for each lecture and students are expected to engage in independent study around this.

Learning outcomes for each course have been kept few and broad in order to allow students some choice in how they approach assessment tasks. On practice learning placements students are expected to meet the SiSWE requirements for social work practice

Students enrol on the full MSW award. Those who do not achieve the necessary grades to progress to the dissertation or who fail to complete the dissertation for personal or medical reasons are eligible to exit the programme with a PG Diploma in Social Work, which permits them to register as social workers with the SSSC. Those students who fail to complete the programme but who have amassed at least 60 credits of which 40 must be at level 11, are eligible to exit the programme with a PG Certificate. This does not allow them to register as a social worker.

Students may also exit with an MSc in Applied Social Science if they have completed a greater number of courses including the following courses: 

• Social Work in Communities (PG) SCWR11039 ??? 20 Credits
• Social Work with Individuals and Families (PG) SCWR11038- 20 Credits
• Working with Self and Others: Skills Theories & Methods (PG) SCWR11037 - 20 Credits
• Understanding Care and Control (PG) SCWR11033- 20 Credits
• Doing Social Work Research (PG) SCWR10027-  20 Credits
• Working with Risk, Trust & Complexity (PG) SCWR11040 - 40 Credits
• Dissertation (PG) SCWR11009- 60 Credits

This MSc does not allow them to register as a social worker. 

Teaching and learning methods and strategies

Academic teaching is delivered principally through lectures. Weekly tutorials are held to allow students to process and deepen their learning around the topics covered in lectures. Students are also expected to use the EAL method, which includes visits to key informants in social work settings and groupwork, to develop their understandings of social work practice. Skills in relevant social work research methods are developed in the Doing Social Work Research course.

Assessment methods and strategies

Assessment methods for each course are identified in the table above and include essays, group presentations and (for practice) a portfolio. University work is assessed by academic staff and
Feedback on assessment follows a standard pattern with students marked against the extent they are adjudged to have met the learning outcomes for the course, strengths of the submission and areas where it might have been strengthened.

Career opportunities

Social work is a broad field of activity, which includes: local authority social work in the areas of children and families, criminal justice and adult services. Local authority roles in children's teams include family support work, child protection, working with looked-after children (foster care), adoption and school attendance (education social worker). In adult teams, opportunities include mental health and substance misuse work.
Social workers also work in either local authority or voluntary/charity/social enterprise projects with the elderly, those with physical or learning disabilities, in residential and day-care facilities, in criminal justice work, housing and community projects and with the homeless.
A social work qualification from a Scottish university is recognised in other UK jurisdictions and a Masters degree is recognised in many other countries in the world.
Over 80% of our graduates find relevant employment within 6 months of graduating. Others may find employment in related fields such as community development or counselling. A social work qualification also provided graduates with a broad range of skills that might be utilised in a range of settings.

Other items

Not completed