Faculty of Social Sciences

Master of Social Work

Programme Director: Dr Fung Kwok Kin

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, recognizing personal educational needs, selecting appropriate learning resources and evaluating progress;
3.	To develop specialized 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 recognize, 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 emphasizes 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:

I)	Integrative Courses	12 units
II)	Concentration Courses	9 units
III)	Elective Courses	9 units
		───────
		30 units

Requirements

I.	Integrative Courses			12 units
	SOWK	7010	Social Work in a Changing Social Context	3 units
	SOWK	7030	Critical Management Practice	3 units
	SOWK	7040	Research & Programme Evaluation	3 units
	SOWK	7410	Human Diversity & Cultural Diffrences	3 units

II.	Concentration Courses			9 units
	Choose one concentration:
	Mental Health Practice Concentration
	SOWK	7110	Mental Health, Mental Disorder & Social Work	3 units
	SOWK	7210	Working with Families with Mental Health Issues	3 units
	SOWK	7230	Crisis Management & Integrated Mental Health Practice	3 units
	Youth Work Concentration
	SOWK	7170	Youth at the Margins: Theory & Practice	3 units
	SOWK	7220	Youth & Cultural Practice	3 units
	SOWK	7240	Critical Youth Work	3 units

III.	Elective Courses			9 units
	SOWK	7120	Child & Adolescent Mental Health	3 units
	SOWK	7151-2	Dissertation	6 units
	SOWK	7310	Globalization & Community Development Practice	3 units
	SOWK	7430	Narrative Approach to Counselling	3 units
	SOWK	7500	Family Therapy	3 units
				──────
				30 units