Social Work

To graduate from the Social Work programme, you must:

• successfully complete all the classes and internships
• produce two Bachelor’s theses which must both receive a pass mark
• pass the Bachelor’s examination

Your title on graduation will be “Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences (BA)“.

Our students complete a Bachelor’s thesis during their course. The students write their thesis during the sixth semester, focusing on an interdisciplinary case study. The thesis analyse a problem from a particular specialist field under the direction of a supervisor. The results are then presented in a scientifically appropriate manner.

The topics and questions involved in the study are related to the following modules:

• Life worlds, social environment and community work
• Social policy and social philosophy
• Biography, development and training
• The legal basis of social work
• Organisations and institutions
• International and intercultural work

The topics are developed with lecturers during the seminars and approved by the head of degree programme. Group work is also possible, but it must be possible for parts of the thesis to be evaluated on an individual basis. Students can prepare specific topics and questions in coordination with their internship organisations and explore these issues as part of their final thesis.

The Bachelor’s examination takes place at the end of the sixth semester or in the following autumn. It is held in front of an examination board consisting of three lecturers from the Social Work programme and involves the presentation and defence of the Bachelor’s thesis. The members of the examination board select applied questions on topics such as law, social management and social work.

After graduation students can enrol on a relevant Master’s programme, e.g. Social Work at FH JOANNEUM. The course offers three specialisations: Intercultural and International Social Work; Social Policy, Social Economy and Social Management, and Social Work with People in Precarious Circumstances.

Many of our graduates go straight into employment after completing their Bachelor’s degree. They work, for example:

• at youth and welfare agencies, at counselling services or in self-help groups
• at in-patient and outpatient facilities
• at probationary services, prisons and courts
• in psychiatric hospitals and hospices
• in social marketing
• in projects
• in accommodation, for example, for asylum seekers