MA Social Work

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UCAS Code:
L501
Institution:
B50
Delivery:
Full time according to Funding Council definitions

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MA Social work is an academic qualification and crucially, is also a professional qualification. Our course is accredited by Social Work England which means you’ll be eligible to apply for registration as a social worker on successful completion of the course, explaining why over 95% of our graduates are employed within six months of leaving.

Social workers practice in areas including child protection, fostering and adoption, adult safeguarding, mental health, substance use, hospital discharge and disability.

This practical degree, which is ranked 1st in its subject area according to the 2021 Guardian League tables, blends a powerful combination of academic study with essential practical experience. As a result, you will leave us equipped with specialist knowledge and practical skills needed to deal with a broad range of issues such as social exclusion and discrimination, law and social policy, psycho-social development, models and methods of intervention and research methods.

You will gain lots of relevant experience during your placements, operating in real-world settings. What’s more, you can even seize the opportunity to travel and engage in international activities.

“Undertaking the MA Social Work programme was enlightening and thought provoking, and prepared me for my career choice.”
Collette Compton, graduate

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Next start date:

September 2021, September 2022

Location:

Bournemouth University, Lansdowne Campus

Duration:

2 years

Entry requirements:

A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:1 in any subject. Applicants with a 2:2 may be considered if they have strong relevant work experience.

If English is not your first language you'll need IELTS (Academic) 7.0 with a minimum of 6.5 in each component of writing, speaking, listening and reading. For more information check out our full entry requirements.

Course details

You'll complete core units about the social and behavioural science disciplinary base which are central to understanding people and societies in context. You'll then move on to explore specific areas that deal in-depth with childcare and safeguarding, working with adults made vulnerable by a range of factors. This will prepare you for contemporary social work practice. Ethics and values are central to this preparation and you'll study a unit addressing the dilemmas and tensions of working in complex, uncertain situations.

On this course you will be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners and research students.

How you will be assessed

You will be assessed in practice and through coursework culminating in your final year 100 day placement. The assessment methods for each unit can be found on the programme profile in the course programme specification.

Download the programme specification (pdf 783kb)

Year 1

Core units

Law for Social Work: You will develop an understanding of law and relevant social policy and, through your knowledge and harnessing of relevant skills, be able to use knowledge of law and social policy competently and creatively.
Applying Social Work Models and Methods: The unit will help you develop an understanding of the complex and multi-layered nature of social work with a strong focus on the practical applications.
Developing Professional Relationships (Readiness for Direct Practice): This unit aims to facilitate the development of personal and interpersonal communication skills as well as exploring and understanding theory that will aid the application of these skills in professional practice. It incorporates preparation and assessment of your readiness for direct practice through and provides a range of practical guidance, support and knowledge to develop your capabilities against the Professional Capabilities Framework and the HCPC Codes of practice.
Psychosocial Perspectives of the Life Course: You’ll develop an understanding of human growth, development and behaviour across the lifespan, and different sociological and psychological explanations for this.
Professional Practice with Children and their Families: This Unit will be underpinned by research and evidence based judgements and students will develop their understanding and competence in assessment and intervention with children and their families. Students will be expected to examine their own beliefs and values in relation to protection work and to build on their previous learning in both theory and practice.
Professional Practice with Adults: This unit aims to prepare social work students for practice with adults in a variety of settings; making reference to contemporary social work practice issues. This includes approaches to intervention, the legislative framework which mandates practice, professional accountability, applying critical thinking, working with risk and complexity, and the importance of evidence-informed practice.
First Substantive Placement: This practice based unit provides essential practice experiences that you require in working toward meeting the regulations of the professional body.

Year 2

Core units

Final Substantive Placement – This practice based unit provides essential practice experiences that you require in working toward meeting the regulations of the professional body including the opportunity to undertake statutory tasks and legal interventions.

Optional units:

Dissertation unit: The dissertation draws on conceptual, theoretical and practical knowledge, developed in other units of the programme. It provides the opportunity to consider existing knowledge in a way that is intellectually critical, and has the potential to expand or redefine the application of existing knowledge and/ or contributes to new approaches to practice.

Team Working for Service Improvement: The aim of this unit is to enable students to develop the skills of working in small inter-professional teams to design and develop a service improvement or product to enhance the experiences of people who use services and / or their carers. This unit provides the opportunity to work with student peers from a range of disciplines across the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences.

and

Critical Literature Review: You will undertake an intellectually challenging and in-depth literature review exploring a topic relevant to contemporary social work practice as grounded in evidenced-based practice.

Scheduled learning and teaching activities for each year

Contact hours

The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during each year of this course. You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions.

Your independent learning could include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments.

Year 1 – your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities, self-managed study and practice learning

Learning and teaching (30 hours contact time per unit)
Self- managed and facilitated group work
Directed and self-managed study
Individual and group tutorials
70 day placement (4 days in placement and one day in university each week in semester two)

Year 2 – depending on your choice of option units, your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities, self-managed study, dissertation supervision and practice learning

Learning and teaching (30 hours contact time per unit)
Self- managed and facilitated group work
Directed and self-managed study
Individual and group tutorials
100 day placement (based on a 35 hour / 5 day week in semester one)

Programme specification

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Placements

Thanks to our close ties with local employers, which include Social Services departments in our neighbouring local authorities and many of the varied local voluntary sector agencies, you will have the opportunity to undertake two substantive placements during your course where you will develop strong working relationships with those already in the profession. You will gain meaningful, hands-on experience during your placements, in a variety of different real-world social work settings and develop a broad range of practical skills.

Find out more about placements for postgraduate students

Duration and delivery

The Social Work team works in partnership with our local stakeholders which include Social Services departments in our neighbouring local authorities and also with many of the varied local voluntary sector agencies.

In placements, you will be supervised in practice by qualified Practice Educators providing you with essential practice experience that will develop your social work knowledge and skills. In semester two of year one you will undertake a 70 day placement in a social care setting and in semester one of year two you will undertake 100 days within a social work team, undertaking statutory tasks.

What your placement will involve

The wide range of placements includes:

Social work teams engaging in child protection and adult safeguarding with adults, children and their families
Hospital social work teams
Fostering and adoption
Drug and alcohol services
Mental health services
Supported housing and homelessness schemes
Domestic violence refuges
Children’s centres
Adult day resources
Children’s homes
Youth projects
Adult disability services

Your application

For Social Work, we are looking for applicants who:

Have an awareness of the role of a Social Worker within society
Have a non-judgemental attitude, an appreciation of diversity and self-awareness, flexibility and openness to new ideas
Can demonstrate relevant skills such as listening, negotiating and advocacy
Have life experiences which may have influenced the applicant to think about a career in social work.

Please note that when applying for this course via UCAS, you will need to search for it in the undergraduate category.

How to apply

Background and experience

Students are expected to have relevant experience in social work and/or social care and show that they have learnt from this experience. The longer and more varied that experience, the better.

Examples of the sort of experience that candidates often have are:

Employment as a carer in a residential home
Being a volunteer in an agency working with young offenders
Paid or voluntary work in a day centre for people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities, or mental health problems
Work on summer play schemes and/or after school clubs
Personal experience as a service user or carer.

Selection methods

We’ll use the UCAS applications to create a shortlist of candidates that we would like to find out more about. You can find some handy hints about filling in your UCAS form on our how to apply webpages.

Please note that all successfully shortlisted applicants are invited to interview. This will demonstrate whether you show the necessary insight into social work, as well as the motivation and commitment to become a social worker.

What to expect at interview

Your interview will take place online, on a free video communication platform.

A member of the Admissions Team will email you with joining instructions and information about what to expect at interview.

Your individual interview is where you will have the opportunity to tell us a little more about yourself and why you would be a great candidate for the course. You will be scored using a common template and offers will be made based on these scores.

If you are invited to interview, you will also be able to access online on-demand information presentations, course talks, virtual campus tours and more which you can watch before your interview. On the day of your interview you may also be able to join a live chat-room where you can ask questions to our current student ambassadors and other members of staff.

Find out more about interviews

How and when to apply

There is no application deadline for this course. However, if you will need a visa to come to the UK to study, think carefully about the length of time it will take for your visa application to be processed and make sure your visa will be ready in time for the beginning of your course.

You will need to apply for this course through UCAS. Click the green ‘Apply now’ button to access the UCAS website.

Applying for direct entry to the 2nd (final) year

Entry requirements

General entry requirements

The normal requirements for embarking upon a postgraduate taught degree are:

A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:1 in any subject, or equivalent.
Applicants with a 2:2 may be considered if they have strong relevant work experience.

If you lack the formal academic qualifications needed to enter a postgraduate or post-experience degree, there are several alternative routes to follow - some based on experience. Contact the Future Students Enquiry Team for more information.

International entry requirements

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:

China: 学士学位 (Bachelor degree) with a minimum of 65% overall
Nigeria: Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution in Nigeria
Thailand: Thai Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution.
Vietnam: Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of at least 7.0, or a Master’s degree/Thac si.
Turkey: Bachelor’s Degree (Lisans Diplomasi -four years) to be considered for a postgraduate course at BU.

All applications will be subject to a minimum grade and your degree may need to be in a relevant subject area.

English language requirements

You can find details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our entry requirements for non-UK students' page.

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:

IELTS (Academic) 7.0 with minimum 6.5 in each component, or equivalent.

View further information about our English language requirements.

Non-academic requirements

IT skills

IT skills are increasingly important in almost all professions. In the social work sector IT is now a vital tool for accessing and maintaining service user records, accessing literature about social work interventions and conducting practice-related research. As a student you will receive an introduction to IT near the beginning of your course and you will be provided with computer access and your own email address. During the course you will be expected to use your developing IT skills to produce assignments, to conduct literature searches, and to use agency record systems in a practice setting.

Occupational health checks

Social Work is physically and mentally demanding and we need to be sure you are fit and well and able to withstand the rigours of the course and the occupation. Places are offered subject to passing an OH check, and this will be carried out by the Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust. There are some medical conditions that might cause a problem. Examples are: deafness, blindness, eczema (or other dermatological allergic reactions) on exposed areas, epilepsy, severe back problems and mental health conditions. If you have one of these conditions, or some other condition or disability which you believe may affect your ability to complete the course, you can contact us for more guidance.

You will be required to provide a record of your immunity status or be vaccinated or have the required blood tests. Please see this table for the required immunisations, social work students do not require a Hepatitis B vacination. You may need to ask your GP or current OH department or find your childhood vaccination record for details of your past immunisation records. You should be aware that there may be charges made (for which you will be liable) relating to your gaining the appropriate immunity required prior to starting your training programme.

Refusing immunisations

Students who refuse immunisations, or who cannot be immunised for medical reasons, will be reviewed on an individual basis by occupational health. Refusal to have immunisations may result in the student not being allowed to attend practice placement and being withdrawn from the course. There is no opportunity to appeal against the requirements of the immunisation policy.

Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check (previously known as CRB)

All successful applicants will be subject to an enhanced disclosure & barred list check. This will be a condition of offer and will need to be completed prior to commencing the course. Please see the Government website for the most up-to-date information.

Consent for roleplay and practical activities

It is important that you understand what will be expected of you as a student studying for both an academic award and professional qualification in social work. You must agree to participate in roleplay and practical activities within the Social Work course at Bournemouth University as detailed in this document. As participation is a requirement for successful competition of the course, failure to comply with these expectations could lead to disciplinary action.

Careers

After completing this course, you will possess the practical skills and theoretical knowledge for embarking on a career as a social worker in a variety of posts in statutory, voluntary and independent sectors, in the UK and abroad.

Potential future job roles

Further study

Costs and fees

You can find full information about the Social Work Bursary, funding your studies and paying your fees in our postgraduate fees and funding section, including details of the Postgraduate Loan (subject to fee status).

Fees quoted are for tuition only unless stated otherwise. Your tuition fees will be the same for each year of your course.

Find out more about living expenses for postgraduate students

No hidden extras

What's included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

Professional body accreditation of the course
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
Occupational Health Services and checks. Please note that you will be charged if you do not attend Occupational Health appointments without giving appropriate notice. Where the need for additional vaccinations arises, you may be required to cover the costs of these.
Materials for laboratory and field-based teaching activity
Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement.
A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service
The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces
Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features.
IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow
Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme
Disability and additional learning support
The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills
24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Costs of living and other expenses you need to consider

Additional cost

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

Laptops, tablets and mobile devices
Accommodation and living costs. Our accommodation price guide can be found on our website.
Text books, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of text books and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses.
Travel costs to and from the University campus. An annual bus pass is included in your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation.
Travel costs to and from your placement which could be based at various locations across the southwest region. Students may claim reimbursement towards travel and accommodation costs from the NHS
Please visit the NHS Business Services Authority website for more information.
SportBU membership.

Repeat units

Financial help available from BU

Deposits

International (not Rep. of Ireland) students need to pay a non-refundable £3,000 deposit to secure their place on a postgraduate course. You will need to pay your deposit by the date stated in your offer letter. The remainder of your fee will be payable on registration/enrolment. There are two exceptions to the non-refundable rule on the deposit:

You fail to meet the academic or English requirements of your offer
You are refused a visa to enter the UK, provided the reason for the refusal is not a fraudulent application.

Social Work Bursary

Our staff

On this course you will be taught by staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This could include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners and research students, many of whom are actively engaged in research and/or professional practice which is integrated into the teaching of this course. Please note that teaching staff can change.

Dr Richard Williams – Senior Lecturer in Social Work

Richard’s passion for making a difference to children, young people and families, is central to his academic work.

Having joined BU as a Senior Lecturer after his years in practice, he continued to focus his teaching, writing and research on outcomes in general and the positive impact of social work in particular.

Working at BU has allowed Richard to extend his interest in managing hostility and mediation and to apply this to teaching across different disciplinary groups.

Richard currently project manages a research project ‘The Heart of the Matter’ commissioned by the Bournemouth & Poole LSCB into the child protection processes and procedures. This work has successfully engaged with professional groups as well as parents, significant other adults and children and young people.

View Dr Richard Williams’ staff profile

Jill Davey – Principal Academic

Prior to joining Bournemouth University (BU) in May 2003, Jill held both strategic and managerial positions in relation to social work. Jill’s last post in practice was that of a Principle Education Officer within Bournemouth Local Authority.

Jill’s currently undertaking a PhD, which has drawn on research from the UK and South Africa, where she undertook a five week field work study in Zululand, South Africa. In October 2014, Jill was awarded a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in recognition of my success as a high quality educator.

During Jill’s time in practice, she held specialist posts including managing a social work service to all Bournemouth Local Authority and Independent Schools. Jill retained responsibility for ensuring all children, living within the Bournemouth local area, were effectively achieving their optimal educational outcome and effectively safeguarded from harm or abuse. Jill also took the Education lead for the Local Authority on Serious Case Reviews.

View Jill Davey’s staff profile

Dr Mel Hughes – Principal Academic in social work

Mel is a Senior Lecturer in social work and a practice educator with specific interests in the student experience, practice learning, mental health and substance use.

Mel’s research includes articles on:

The impact of service user and carer involvement on students’ subsequent social work practice: a follow up study
Developing standards of care in residential homes: A participatory Action Research project in collaboration with The Patient Association
Gaining insight into what works to minimise loneliness and isolation. A participatory action research project in collaboration with the Poole Wellbeing Collaborative
Principal investigator: evidencing the impact of service user involvement in professional health and social work programmes
Principal investigator: Parents Story Project: Gaining insight into parental substance use

View Dr Mel Hughes’ staff profile

Dr Margarete Parrish – Senior Lecturer

Margarete Parrish’s career in social work began with her MSW from the University of Georgia in the US, where she specialised in Mental Health Social Work. Her PhD in Social Work is from Rutgers University, where she also specialised in Mental Health. Her practice background has been in both medical and mental health settings. Her practice specialities include adaptation following trauma, adolescents, mental health and substance misuse.

Margarete has taught in the UK since 2004, and joined the social work team at BU in January 2013. The second edition of her book “Social Work Perspectives on Human Behaviour” was published in 2014.

View Dr Margarete Parrish’s staff profile

Course changes

Changes in 2019

Date	Changes to this course
22/05/2019	Change made: course re-validation Where the change was made: course overview, programme specification, units specifications, contact hours, assessment, placement information Previous text: N/A

What our students say

Pennie Pinder

All the academics have been very supportive throughout my course and provide detailed feedback on assignments so that you can always improve.

Hear from our staff

Richard Williams

Social Work is not a discipline for the faint-hearted and our students develop personally and professionally; they embrace the learning opportunities and the challenges these opportunities provide and the outcome is high quality practitioners.

Statistics shown throughout this page are taken from Unistats and BU institutional data unless otherwise stated.