About the Department of Social Work

The department of social work was established in January 2023. The department is responsible for the social work programme as well as research, postgraduate training, and education at first-cycle and second-cycle levels in social work.

In terms of teaching, there is collaboration with the departments of sociology, psychology and law. For the more profession-specific elements of the training, personal and professional development, and supervised placement, professional social workers have been recruited as an additional resource. The department’s teachers are also active researchers, which guarantees research-related teaching.

Uppsala University thus offers education in social work from the first-cycle level with a degree in social work to second-cycle level studies with a Master’s degree, and further to postgraduate education and a doctorate in social work.

History

Social work as education began at the Department of Sociology in 2007 through the establishment of the Bachelor’s programme in social work. In 2008, Uppsala University received degree rights for the social work programme and in the same year the first batch of students, who also had the opportunity to take a social work degree, were accepted.

At the turn of the year 2017/18, CESAR − Centre for Social Work − was established to host the social work programme. Organisationally, CESAR was placed with the sociology department, but had its own Board. In connection with the establishment of CESAR, the first professor of social work was recruited, and social work became its own research subject at Uppsala University. A doctoral program in social work was established in the spring of 2018, followed by a Master’s programme in social work within the Master’s programme in social sciences in 2019. In January 2023, the department of social work was established.

Over the years, a consistent thread regarding the social work programme has been the connection between universities and the field of social work, both on a regional level and nationally. During the planning of the social work programme, representatives of relevant businesses and user organisations within Uppsala County participated in the development work and were represented in the programme council that then followed the work on the programme. A network of contacts was established at the beginning and has become the basis for recruiting guest lecturers on the course. The network has also been involved in the development of field visits and places for the supervised placement course and supervised business-based training (previous internships) in both non-profit and public activities.