School of
Social Welfare

Online Catalog

Master of Social Work

Built upon the commitment to a strengths perspective of social work practice, the Master of Social Work program offers educational opportunities for those who wish to expand their skills in helping individuals and communities develop their capacities to support and enhance the quality of life for all people. The school recognizes that individuals with a natural skill in helping come from all backgrounds and encourages them to apply.

The Master of Social Work degree prepares graduates for advanced social work practice in one of two broad areas — clinical social work practice with individuals, families, and groups or social work advocacy and administration aimed at macro-level practice. The first level of the master’s curriculum is a generalist foundation required of all students. The foundation consists of six classroom courses and a two-semester practicum that reflects the generalist intent.

At the advanced level, students choose a concentration in clinical social work practice with a focus in a particular field of practice — child and family, health/mental health, aging, school social work — or social work administrative and advocacy practice. The advanced-level practicum implements students’ choice of concentration.

Full-time students complete the program in two years. Students admitted for part-time study may extend the program for up to four years.

The advanced-standing program admits individuals with B.S.W. degrees with strong academic records. Applicants generally have relevant post-degree work experience.

The regular M.S.W. program is available full time or part time. Part-time students complete the program in either three or four years. On KU’s Edwards Campus, part-time students can complete the M.S.W. curriculum in afternoon and evening classes.

Application Procedure for All Options

A minimum undergraduate grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4-point scale is expected. The admissions committee takes into account special circumstances such as improvement of grades in upper-division or graduate courses. We look for evidence of an applicant’s commitment to the well-being of people and communities; a well-developed sense of self; emotional maturity; and the ability to think clearly, creatively, and independently. Graduate Record Examination scores are not required.

Applications can be filled out and submitted online at www.socwel.ku.edu. The applicant is responsible for gathering the following supporting materials and submitting them in one envelope: one copy of student-issued transcripts from all previously attended schools regardless of degree status, three letters of reference on forms provided, and a nonrefundable application fee of $25 for online applications or $30 for paper applications. Applicants submitting paper applications also must include the School of Social Welfare application and a narrative statement.. Please observe the specific instructions provided in application packets and on our Web site, www.socwel.ku.edu.

Applications are reviewed beginning in October. Admission decisions are made in the spring of each year. Advanced-standing M.S.W. students begin in June; all other M.S.W. students (full time and part time) begin in August.

Final Deadlines. All applications are reviewed upon receipt. The deadline for the Advanced-standing program is January 15. The deadline for applications to the Regular M.S.W. program (full time or part time) is February 15. Early application is encouraged. For students submitting paper applications by December 1, the application fee is waived.

To ensure your privacy, we are unable to provide admission decisions over the telephone. All applicants will be notified in writing.

All application materials become the property of the University of Kansas.

Planning Your Commitment

Students are admitted on either a full- or a part-time basis. In making decisions about full- or part-time study, students should consider that each class requires several hours of preparation each week. The program is demanding; students can expect reading assignments and paper preparation, and should be prepared to fulfill practicum commitments averaging two-and-one-half to three days per week. Students admitted part-time take 6 credit hours each semester their first year. Full-time students enroll in 16 credit hours each semester. Currently, the M.S.W. program is a weekday program. Late-afternoon and evening courses are offered on the Edwards Campus.

Applications

Submit your application online at www.socwel.ku.edu
or
Request application materials from
The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare
M.S.W. Admissions
1545 Lilac Lane
Lawrence, KS 66044-3184
(785) 864-4720, admissionsmsw@ku.edu

Foundation Curriculum

Social Work Practice (SW 710, 711)
Based on the school’s unique strengths perspective, courses provide core knowledge and skills essential for working with individuals, families, and groups.

Community and Organizational Practice (SW 713)
This practice class gives students an understanding of the core elements of practice in organizations and communities.

Social Policy and Program Analysis (SW 720)
Course emphasizes the effect of social problems, policies, and programs on people and gives students the skills to analyze the effectiveness of policies and programs.

Human Behavior in the Social Environment (SW 730)
Theoretical underpinnings essential for effective social work practice and for understanding the behavior of individuals, families, groups, and communities.

Social Work Research (SW 740)
Course offers students the opportunity to become informed consumers of social-work-relevant research and to develop skill in evaluating the effectiveness of their own work with clients and the effectiveness of the programs in which they work.

Field Practicum (SW 701)
Community agencies throughout Kansas and western Missouri offer practicum opportunities for the application of knowledge gained in other sequences.

Field experiences for foundation students extend the curriculum goal of generalist social work and are designed so that fundamental skills across multiple levels of intervention are acquired.

Foundation Courses

The following courses are required (32 credit hours):

Semester 1 (16 credit hours)
SW 701 Basic Field Practicum (7)
SW 710 Social Work Practice I (3)
SW 713 Community and Organizational Practice (3)
SW 720 Social Policy and Program Analysis (3)

Semester 2 (16 credit hours)
SW 701 Basic Field Practicum (7)
SW 711 Social Work Practice II (3)
SW 730 Human Behavior in the Social Environment (3)
SW 740 Social Work Research (3)

Advanced-level Curriculum

Students at the advanced level select a concentration in either clinical social work practice or social work administrative and advocacy practice in accordance with their goals of either working directly with individuals, families, and groups or at the marco-level of practice in social program design and administration. Students may not enroll in advanced-level classes before completing foundation requirements.

Clinical Social Work Concentration

(32 credit hours). The clinical social work concentration prepares students for social work practice with individuals, families, and small groups. The focus is on selecting and evaluating interventions based on needs in each situation, whether personal, interpersonal, or environmental. Social work theory and methods taught are applicable to the variety of practice settings in which clinical services are provided, as reflected in the list of practicum settings at the end of this catalog. Students expecting to sit for the
Licensed Specialist Clinical Social Worker examination two years after the M.S.W. should take the clinical social work practice concentration.

Semester 3
SW 801 Advanced Field Practicum: Clinical Practice (7)
SW 810 Clinical Social Work Practice (3)
Integrative Seminar (3)

Students must select an integrative seminar that complements the advanced field practicum. Courses include SW 830 Social Work in Child and Family Settings, SW 832 Social Work in Health Care and Mental Health Settings, SW 833 Social Work and Aging, and SW 834 Social Work in Schools.

Diversity Selective (3)

This cluster of courses is organized around understanding diversity and applying that understanding to specific populations of people who have been marginalized and oppressed.

 

Semester 4
SW 801 Advanced Field Practicum: Clinical Practice (7)
SW 811 Clinical Practice Selective (3)

This selection of offerings emphasizes application of advanced theoretical and practice principles to client systems.

Clinical Practice Electives (6)

The clinical practice electives offer students an opportunity to acquire in-depth knowledge in a core area of clinical social work practice. (For students expecting to sit for the LSCSW license in the future, at least one of the clinical electives must meet the BSRB requirement for diagnosis and treatment.)

Social Work Administrative and Advocacy Practice Concentration
(32 credit hours). The social work administrative and advocacy practice concentration prepares graduates for management positions in public and voluntary human service organizations. The curriculum helps students achieve competence in managerial practice grounded in the knowledge and values of social work. Knowledge and skill areas include program design, managing information, managing people, managing resources, and program evaluation. This concentration prepares students to be program managers, supervisors, agency administrators, program monitors and evaluators, and social planners with voluntary health and welfare planning agencies; federal, state, and local planning bodies; and advocacy and self-help organizations.

Semester 4
SW 804 Advanced Field Practicum: Social Work Administration (7)
SW 842 Using Outcomes for Administrative and Advocacy Practice (3)
SW 843 Strengthening Staff Performance in a Diverse Workplace (3)
Advanced Administrative Practice Selective (3)

This selective extends and deepens students’ skills and knowledge in administrative practice and expands their expertise in client-centered change at the community and organizational level.

Advanced-standing Program

The advanced-standing program requires an enrollment of 38 credit hours, as follows:

No credit will be given for courses taken before admission. The advanced level of this program may be taken full time or extended up to two years, with approval of the associate dean. Two sequential semesters of 10-credit-hour enrollments are necessary to meet residence requirements.

Field Practicum

The field practicum office works with community agencies throughout Kansas and western Missouri to provide field education opportunities for students. Students are placed in these agencies through a collaborative process between the practicum office, the student and the community agency.

The field practicum office is responsible for ensuring that all field placements are able to provide the appropriate learning opportunities for students and that qualified field instructors will be available to the student. The practicum office arranges all placements.

Students have two practicum placements, one during the foundation level and one during the advanced level of the program. Each placement is for two consecutive semesters, 14 credit hours per year. Foundation-level students engage in practicum for 20 hours a week, in a two-semester period of 30 weeks for a minimum of 600 clock hours. Advanced-level students spend 24 hours a week in practicum for the two-semester period for a minimum of 720 clock hours. In both years, the practicum is concurrent with required practice courses. Practicum is graded on an S/U basis. A satisfactory (S) grade in both the foundation and advanced level practicum is a requirement for the M.S.W. degree. At the end of the first semester, a grade of P is given for satisfactory progress toward completion of the course. No credit is given for partial completion (fewer than 14 credit hours) of either practicum.

The foundation-level field practicum provides the necessary learning opportunities for the achievement of foundation curriculum objectives and development of a generalist perspective on practice. Advanced-level practicum provides the learning opportunities essential for completing the learning objectives of either the clinical or social work administration concentrations. Clinical concentration practica are linked to integrative seminars in the following fields of practice: children and families, health/mental health, aging, or school social work.

An orientation is held in the fall, before the beginning of classes, for all students entering a field practicum and the field liaisons who represent the school. The Field Practicum Handbook explains practicum-related expectations and policies. Students are responsible for the material in the handbook.

Every student in practicum has both an M.S.W. practicum instructor and a field liaison. The practicum instructor is responsible for designating learning opportunities, planning practicum assignments, and serving as the student’s teacher in the practicum. The field liaison is employed by the School of Social Welfare to work with practicum instructors and students in each agency, to help integrate practicum and class instruction, to evaluate student performance, and to assist if difficulties arise.

Field placements are mainly in the Kansas City, Topeka, and Wichita areas, with a limited number of settings in Lawrence, Leavenworth, and other Kansas and Missouri communities. Most agencies also require a student to have transportation available for agency assignments.Students are responsible for transportation to the assigned field practicum.

Because of the necessity for continuity in both client service and learning, the maximum time for a break between semesters in practicum is three weeks, regardless of time allowable according to the university calendar.

Alternative Plans
When a student’s current employment includes appropriate practice opportunities, but the student is not interested in applying for an Employment-based Practicum (see below), the practicum may be postponed by approval of the associate dean for academic programs until other courses at that level have been completed. The student must submit a practicum exception form to the director of practicum, who makes a recommendation to the associate dean. Following the completion of course work, a practicum may be completed either in a two-to-three-day, two-semester plan or a block plan, four to five days a week over a shorter time than two semesters. Enrollment and fees for practicum are required during the time the student is in the field practicum. All practicum placements require that students be available for a minimum of eight hours per week in a setting during weekday hours, with more time required depending on the learning needs of the students and program needs of the agency. Practicum placements that provide any night and weekend hours are extremely limited.

Employment-based Practicum
An Employment-based Practicum (EBP) allows students to use their places of employment as sites for field practicum. Students may apply for an EBP if they meet the following criteria:

An Employment-based Practicum is not an avenue for students to get educational credit for the work they do in their places of employment, a way for employers to get more hours of work out of an employee they value through adding the practicum on to a full time job, or a special practicum.

Although the setting for an EBP may be different from a traditional practicum, all of the expectations for field practicum specified by the School of Social Welfare are still requirements for an Employment-based Practicum.

Employment-based Practicum application forms and guidelines are available from the practicum office. To be considered, the completed EBP application must be submitted to the practicum office by the deadline dates listed on the application.

Prior Work Experience
In accordance with national curriculum policy, prior employment and life experience may not be credited toward classroom course work or practicum requirements.

Credit for Course Work Taken Outside the School of Social Welfare

Clinical students who wish to substitute a course taken outside the School of Social Welfare for the clinical elective must petition the clinical committee before the beginning of the semester (for fall, August 1; for spring, December 15). Petitions must include the course syllabus, verification that the course is a graduate course, and a transcript upon completing the course showing a grade of B or higher. Requests submitted after the beginning of the semester will not be considered. Students who choose field placements that require particular course work are responsible for meeting the academic requirements of the school as well as the field agency. No more than 3 hours of course work taken outside the school will be accepted to meet the elective program requirement.

Social work administrative and advocacy practice students interested in taking a course offered outside the program must consult the chair of the social work administrative and advocacy practice committee.

Credit for continuing education institutes and workshops or programs conducted by nonaccredited or non-degree-granting organizations are not accepted.

Students who request transfer from other programs accredited by the Council of Social Work Education must go through the admission process and provide transcripts, descriptions of field practicum content, written evaluations of field practicum performance, and the number of practicum clock hours.

Students who request transfer from nonaccredited programs are expected to test out of some required foundation courses. Applications for transfer must be received by January 15.

Joint Degree Program in Social Work and Law (M.S.W./J.D.)

The M.S.W./J.D. program combines into four years the two-year M.S.W. program offered by the School of Social Welfare and the three-year J.D. program offered by the School of Law. The program offers a thorough academic grounding in both areas. Contact each school for separate admission information. The Law School Admissions Test is required for admission to the law school. Applicants must apply to and meet the criteria for admission to both schools.

School Social Work

The Kansas Department of Education no longer certifies school social workers. However, the School of Social Welfare strongly recommends that students interested in practicing in a school setting take the following:

Testing Out of First Year Courses

Students who believe they have already mastered the content of SW 720, SW 730 or SW 740 may attempt to test out of the course at a designated time at the beginning of the semester in which the course is offered. To test out, students take the equivalent of a final examination for the course. Up to 6 credit hours may be waived for testing out successfully. A student may attempt to test out of a course only once.

Intermit and Withdrawal

Students in good academic standing may apply to intermit (not take courses) after completion of at least one semester, for a period of one year without the necessity of readmission. Application for intermit status must be submitted to the associate dean of academic programs for approval and must include a statement of support from the student’s academic adviser. Students granted intermit status must verify in writing their intention to return by February 1 for the fall semester or by September 1 for the spring semester.

Any student who is considering intermit status or withdrawal from the program must consult with his or her adviser. An exit statement must be submitted for the record, indicating the reason for intermit or withdrawal.

Changing from Full-time to Part-time Status. Full-time students who drop any class during the foundation year also must drop SW 701 Basic Field Practicum and SW 710/711 Social Work Practice I and II.

Grading

The basic system for M.S.W. courses is an A, B, C, F system, in which A represents exceptional performance, B represents graduate standards, C represents below graduate standards, and F represents failure, unsatisfactory work with no credit granted toward a degree. Plus/minus grades may be given and are calculated in the overall grade-point average.

No course may be retaken to improve a grade.

Incompletes
See Student Advancement Policy.

Financial Aid

For financial assistance for all program locations, apply to the University of Kansas, Office of Student Financial Aid, Strong Hall, 1450 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 50, Lawrence, KS 66045-7535, (785) 864-4700, financialaid@ku.edu, www.financialaid.ku.edu. Financial aid for Lawrence and Kansas City is processed through the Lawrence campus office.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid must be filed for you to be eligible for loan and grant programs administered by the University of Kansas. The FAFSA is available online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Start the process early, before you know your admission status.

A small number of advanced-level field practicum placements may pay a stipend to students. Effort is made to assign these settings to students whose financial need is high.

Scholarships and Awards
Scholarships are awarded to advanced-level M.S.W. students from the following funds established with the Kansas University Endowment Association:

Awards for outstanding field practicum performance are given annually in recognition of Margaret Schutz Gordon, Director of Practicum, 1970-1983.

William and Monte Murphy Fellowships are available based on need. William Palm Fellowships are available for underrepresented ethnic groups. Students must be in good academic standing. The FAFSA must be filed as part of the application process. Please contact the school for more information.

International Students

All students from abroad, including students from English-speaking countries, must visit KU’s Applied English Center for verification of English language skills. You may be required to take an English Language Proficiency Test and to enroll in English language courses if you do not pass that test.

Note: The need to take English courses may delay your start in the M.S.W. program.

If you are admitted to the M.S.W. program, your admission to the School of Social Welfare will be provisional. You will need to visit the KU International Student and Scholar Services Office, Strong Hall, 1450 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2, Lawrence, KS 66045-7535, isss@ku.edu, for your I-20 documentation. You must also visit the Applied English Center, Lippincott Hall, 1410 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 204, Lawrence, KS 66045-7515, aec@ku.edu.

The International Conference on Social Welfare recommends that before seeking professional education for social work in the United States, a student should complete comparable study available in his or her own country and acquire a minimum of two years of social work experience there.

International students also must submit

Post-graduate Education Options

A special program has been created to help meet the continuing education needs of professional social workers in the community. For more information, see the Professional and Community Education Program.

Contact the University of Kansas Office of University Relations with questions or comments about this site.

© 2003 The University of Kansas Office of University Relations.
Photographs within this site © The University of Kansas Office of University Relations.

If you need assistance, contact:

The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare,
Twente Hall,
1545 Lilac Lane,
Lawrence, KS 66044-3184,
(785) 864-4720,

E-mail: admissionsBSW@ku.edu
E-mail: admissionsMSW@ku.edu
E-mail: admissionsw-PhD@ku.edu

Web: http://www.socwel.ku.edu/default.shtml