Description of the Program
The Bachelor’s & Master's Degree in Social Work (BSW & MSW) is offered at Mid-western University by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and addresses candidates who strive to work in the social sector to provide professional assistance and support to people in need. The Academic Program is particularly designed to prepare generalist practitioners for addressin
g the needs of client systems and operate in various social agencies and service provider institutions, both in the government and private sector. The BSW and MSW is an interdisciplinary Program which draws theoretical concepts from different social sciences and focuses on holistic and integrated methods of practice. The Program, in fact, focuses on a variety of both theoretical and practical aspects of social work and its many specializations, integrating the competences of social work, sociology, psychology, educational sciences, methodology, social policy and juridical instruments. Social work education plays also a critical role in shaping students by preparing them to actively operate in our contemporary societies as agents for social change. The Curriculum of this Bachelor’s Program is designed in a way to help learners to understand the role played by the human service professions, to anticipate societal and individuals’ responses and to identify the best practices and modalities how to bring about social change. To this purpose, the emphasis of the Curriculum is twofold: to build up solid theoretical basis necessary for the practice of social work and to enhance students’ operational skills through field work activities. To pursue this aim, the Curriculum tries to instill students with specific ethical values through various field exposures, professional supervision and constant reflection process in the course work. The core domains of the Curriculum focus on the relationship between the social, political and economic development of the society, thus it helps the learners to understand various societal realities, different social systems and their dynamics, as well as to implement processes of social change. Moreover, the humanistic orientation of the Curriculum will provide the learners with a personal satisfying experience and help them to internalize specific values and attitudes of the social work profession. This will also create the conditions for fostering personal growth and effectiveness of the learners, increases their self-awareness and integrity, besides growing as a practitioner.
2. Main Goals of the Program
The main objective of the Bachelor’s in Social Work is to prepare and train a new generation of professional social workers who is well equipped with the necessary skills to counter complex social issues of our contemporary societies. The Bachelor’s aims at preparing students for the professional practice of social work administration and counseling and enable them to effectively operate in the Nepali society, tackle social problems and prepare the path for implementing processes of social change. To pursue these goals, this Academic Programs aims to:
• Ensure that students acquire and developed the necessary theoretical and ethical principles of social work, as well as master methods of analysis for studying social processes and tackle problems in the social sphere;
• Support the development of the student’s competencies to work as medium-level workers in the field of social work, be independent personal thinkers and social engineers;
• Orient students about government policies and make them understand the various actors of social work practice and different intervention modalities, by including instructions in social welfare policy, case work planning, social counseling and intervention strategies, administrative procedures and regulations, and so on;
• Enhance students’ communication skills for enabling them to advocate for social equity and social justice, thus achieving goals of their intended intervention activities;
• Create the conditions for the development of a new generation of professionals with a strong focus on research for effectively working in higher education institutions by developing students’ independent research skills for working and carrying out research on contemporary social subjects.
3. The Professional Profile of the Social Worker
Current phenomena such as globalization, market economy and liberalization are raising concerns in our contemporary societies, while urgent human problems are emerging and need to be addressed. In this framework, the Social Work Profession play an important role in advocating for equity and social justice at large and focusing on the study of organized means of providing support services for vulnerable individuals and groups. By providing assistance, it aims at serving people and helps them to overcome issues and problems they are faced with in their daily life. The Social Worker is a professional profile that is situated, and operates, in between the policy makers and the service providers. However, it is neither a facilitator nor a service provider or a manager, rather a practitioner. The specific task of the Social Worker is to help the policy-making process and properly implement it. The Bachelor’s in Social Work aims at creating a professional profile which will be able to work in the society at different levels and operate in various fields of interventions. Thus, this Academic Program strives to:
• Prepare professional social workers with an overall understanding and knowledge of social work and methods of intervention, and enable them to deal with different typologies of problems and social groups;
• Train professional social workers who are equipped with the necessary conceptual and practical skills for advocating social issues at national, regional and global level;
• Prepare professional social workers who are able to work in socially-relevant areas,such as: public administration, social welfare, community development, local self-administration, non-profit sector, health care institutions, health system, community health and sanitation, education, industry, counseling, family setting, correctional setting, juvenile justice, social defense, advocacy and social justice, development communication, women, children, disability, and other relevant contemporary social areas, problems and vulnerable groups. By pursuing a Bachelor’s in Social Work students will learn to communicate effectively, enhance their problem-solve skills and sharpen their critical and analytical thinking. These skills and competencies are also highly appreciated and valuated in any profession and by employees.
