Social Work

Your degree programme begins in the first semester of my tailor-made study entry phase

• Admission A: For students who have completed a College of Social Pedagogy or who have completed a relevant degree programme at another university and have at least three years of professional experience in the field of social work.
• Admission B: For students who have completed the Bachelor’s degree programme of the same name at FH JOANNEUM or at another university of applied sciences.

In the first semester, all students deal with their personal approaches to social work practice and reflect on their everyday professional life.

• Case lab and Professional Identity
• Supervision, Intervision and Reflection
• Cooperative e-learning

Theory courses cover fundamental and current topics and approaches for the macro, meso and micro levels of social work in depth.

• Society and ways of life
• Action, actor and socialization theories in social work
• Psychodynamics of Unconscious ProcessesOut of the Box – Sustainable Perspectives for Emerging Needs in Social Work

Research courses on empirical social research are structured in such a way that they equalise different levels of experience in empirical social research and students with a lot of research experience can deepen their knowledge and skills.

• Research workshop I- qualitative and quantitative social research
• Research workshop part 2: participatory research
• Evaluative and Biographical Research
• Master’s Thesis and Master’s Examination

From the second semester onwards, you have the opportunity to choose from elective modules each semester. It is important to bear in mind that the curriculum itself is designed in such a way that we recommend choosing a specialisation (elective area 1 Social Work and Social Transformation or elective area 2 Social Management and Social Transformation) and selecting the courses in a bundle. We endeavour to offer all courses, but we have a minimum and maximum number of participants per course. A minimum of 6 people must choose the relevant subject and a maximum of 18 people can attend a course from the elective area.

Elective area 1: Social work and social transformation

In the subject area ‘Social Work and Social Transformation’, you will focus on all areas of traditional social work with clients. You will also work on innovative projects to actively and adequately address current social issues such as increasing social inequality, the risk of poverty and increased migration. The focus is on working with the dialogue group. During your studies, you will reflect on your professional thinking and actions against the background of international values and modern knowledge as well as the requirements of social work.

• Social Work with multiply burdened families in child and youth welfare
• Sexuality, queer sexuality and performance between identity and expression
• Securing livelihood at the intersection of poverty, gender and age
• Personality disorders and case supervision
• At the Intersection of Violence, Extremism and Discrimination
• Social Work in Post-Migration Societies
• Current Methods for Working with Children, Adolescents and Families
• Trauma-Informed Social Work, Supervision and Self-Reflection
• Current Developments and Professional Discourses in Social Work in an International Comparison
• Sustainable social work in post-migration societies
• Social-psychiatric crises, crisis intervention, suicide prevention

Elective area 2: Social management and social transformation

In the ‘Social Management’ specialisation, you will focus on socio-political and economic topics. Key content such as the management of social organisations, law, sustainable entrepreneurship, quality development, personnel management and leadership will enable you to take on challenging tasks in the management of social institutions.

• Designing Social Work Organizations
• Advanced Legal Areas of  Social Economy and Administration
• HR management in social economy
• Labour Law and Social Law in social economy
• Sustainable Social Work and Entrepreneurship
• Transformation and Financing of Social Work Organizations
• Digitalization of Social Work
• Sustainable Leadership and Development of Personnel
• Leadership and Self-Management in Social Economy
• NPO Marketing and Digital Strategy.

Teaching and learning is cooperative, reflective, collaborative, interdisciplinary, asynchronous and synchronous. The application-oriented skills are developed through lectures, reading circles, problem-based learning, research workshops, self-reflective practice units, in-depth theory courses and application-oriented seminars and exercises.

Graduates of the Master’s degree programme in Social Work are able to make social diagnoses and plan tailor-made procedures, develop and implement support concepts together with recipients from various fields of social work. Graduates are able to describe the conditions of social work between the market, civil society and the state and are familiar with measures and methods for planning and controlling management processes in social work organisations. The part-time Master’s programme enables students to systematically research selected processes at the micro, meso or macro level and prepare them scientifically.