Master of Social Work

The MSW is a professional master’s degree designed for those who have undergraduate training in social work and wish to advance their knowledge and skills for social services. It has both full-time and part-time modes of delivery. The length of the programme is one year (full-time) or two years (part-time) including summer term.

The outcome goals of the MSW programme are:

1. To become reflective practitioners who are able to assess changing social needs and adapt their own performance accordingly;
2. To become self-directed learners, recognising personal educational needs, selecting appropriate learning resources and evaluating progress;
3. To develop specialised knowledge and skills at advanced level to match up with the emerging social needs and problems in all their complexity and extensiveness;
4. To be able to assess critically professional activities and advocate for appropriate reforms in the system;
5. To acquire the competence as a researcher-practitioner, so as to enrich one’s knowledge base for the development of new policies and interventions for emerging issues; and
6. To be able to recognise, maintain and develop professional identity to ensure the contribution of the profession in the changing times.

The 30-unit programme is designed to be completed in one year by full-time study or two years by part-time study. Only under exceptional circumstances may students seek extension of the period of study. The programme emphasises student-oriented active learning, and it is geared towards developing opportunity for students to develop a concentration in either youth work or in mental health.

The structure of the curriculum is as follows:

Requirements