
MA in Social Work
Birmingham, United Kingdom
DURATION
2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Request earliest startdate
TUITION FEES
GBP 23,310 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* deadline for International students I 30 August 2024 deadline for Home students
** for International students | UK students: £8,820 per year
Introduction
The University of Birmingham Social Work MA degree will provide you with a practice-focused and eye-opening learning experience. Learn from expert academics and gain first-hand experience from service users, carers and practitioners, and graduate prepared to start an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling career.
Build your career and lead social change
In these recent challenging times, social workers have had a vital role to play. They engage with vulnerable individuals, families and communities daily to promote human rights and make a meaningful difference in people’s life outcomes.
Our course will prepare you for the profession through research-informed teaching, value-based learning and practice placements. The modules of the course incorporate the key skills, expertise and values for contemporary social work practice, complimented by two placements providing the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice. Located within Muirhead Tower, you will benefit from modern, hi-tech teaching facilities.
Graduating with a social work degree offers a variety of opportunities for practising social work and other humanitarian work in the UK and overseas. Our degrees are recognised globally in countries such as Australia, Canada and Hong Kong amongst others, where social workers are also in demand.
Please note that you will be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and Declaration of Suitability for Social Work form, before registration onto the programme.
Why Study Social Work at Birmingham?
- The Department of Social Work and Social Care produces world-leading research in both children's and adult social work.
- Alongside generating knowledge and educating future and current practitioners, the department has direct engagement with providers, commissioners and policymakers regarding their work to design and deliver new models of support.
- The University of Birmingham is embedded within a diverse, multicultural and thriving city and region, with strong civic connections, providing a range of experiences for our students to gain hands-on experience.
- Our course places lived experience at the forefront of our teaching, research and impact and we collaborate with a wide range of service users, carers and practitioners to provide students with a broad range of experiences.
- We are a multi-disciplinary university, with a clear focus on collaboration which includes learning with students from other health and care-related areas.
Gallery
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
At the University of Birmingham, we ensure that fears about finance do not constrain prospective students from considering university and that hard work and academic excellence are rewarded.
We offer a range of additional financial support for students studying at Birmingham in the form of bursaries, grants and scholarships.
The Social Work Bursary is available to home students, subject to eligibility and capping. More information can be found on the NHS Business Services Authority website.
Curriculum
Year one
In Year one you will have the opportunity to develop core academic knowledge and skills and will study five academic modules:
- Social work in practice: context, values and skills
- Journeys through the life course
- Law and social policy for social work
- Critical social work practice with children, families and adults
- Placement One for professional practice
The current social work regulatory body, Social Work England, requires that before our students go out onto placement they have the basic skills needed to work with a wide variety of people and talk to service users with understanding and respect. As part of this skills development you will be required to undertake a Practice Orientation period with a local organisation. During this period you will be oriented to core processes of referral, assessment, and multi-disciplinary working - including engagement with service users and you will be assessed on your professional behaviour.
You will also carry out an assessed role-play interview with a service user or carer and also spend time in a local social care organisation.
The University of Birmingham is a member of one of the regional social work teaching partnerships. The West Midlands Teaching Partnership bring together employers and universities from across the region to work together on ensuring that students have access to practice learning in these Local Authorities and to promote employment opportunities.
Professional Practice Learning placements are at the heart of the University of Birmingham’s Social Work Programmes. The programmes aim to produce reflective social workers with the capacity to work in a changing and diverse society and who are competent, honest and reliable.
To this end, the Programme works with a wide range of statutory and independent organisations, to provide good quality placements. We ask all students to specify their first, second and third choice of local authority, so all students will be potentially offered a placement in one of their top three areas.
The placements on offer are challenging and also very rewarding. Some of the areas of social work covered on placement are:
- Family support and prevention
- Domestic violence
- Refugee and asylum
- Special educational needs
- Fostering
- Child Protection
- Disabilities
- Substance misuse
- Mental Health
The placement in year one is for 70 days. All students will have a practice tutor and practice educator who is a qualified registered social worker and they might also have a day-to-day supervisor called a practice supervisor.
Students should be aware that placements in particular areas of interest are not guaranteed. However, all placements are quality assured, meet required Social Work England standards and provide a wide range of learning opportunities which are transferable to any setting, and have international relevance.
Year two
In Year two you will undertake a further 100 days of professional practice learning which, in line with Social Work England requirements, will be with a different service user group in a different agency setting. All students will have the opportunity during at least one of their practice placements to undertake some statutory duties. As part of this, you will also complete an academic assignment analysing a piece of practice-based work undertaken on this placement.
In conjunction with this you will have the opportunity to reflect upon your learning in preparation for and within practice. Students will undertake learning about work with both children and families and adults and communities and this will be incorporated within a framework which encourages students to adopt a ‘think family’ approach to social work. Teaching and learning will concentrate on cross-cutting issues for practice around risk and protection, whole-family approaches, collaborative working, and strengths-based approaches.
Also in this final year you will develop, conduct and write up in the form of a dissertation, an individual piece of literature and/or empirical-based research in an area of social work you are particularly interested in.
- Research in social work: Dissertation
- Placement Two for professional practice
- Managing staff and leading others in professional social work
Rankings
- #10 For Social Work in the UK (the Complete University Guide 2024)
- #14 out of 130 in the British University rankings (the Complete University Guide 2023)
- #1 in the UK for being most frequently targeted by the country’s top employers (High Fliers Research 2024)
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
There is a clear progression from the social work programme to professional practice in a range of settings such as statutory social work, voluntary organisations and the private sector. Studying with us will help you build a competitive advantage by gaining a qualification from a nationally and internationally acclaimed university, opening up employment opportunities both in the UK and overseas.
Upon graduation, our students take up positions such as:
- Social Worker (children and families, adults, mental health)
- Social Work and Social Care Leadership
- Social Researcher
- Advanced Mental Health Practitioner (AMHP)
- Education Welfare Officer
- Youth Offending Team
- Community Development Worker
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer
- Advocate
This degree leads to an MA with the Professional Qualification in Social Work which provides eligibility to apply to register with Social Work England. This qualification is required to practice as a professional social worker.
As well as equipping you with a professional qualification, gaining the MA allows you to progress on to post-qualifying courses or to apply to continue with your academic studies at PhD level.