About the Department of Social Work

The Department of Social Work was established in January 2023. The department is responsible for the sociology program as well as research, postgraduate training and education at basic and advanced level in social work.

In terms of teaching there is collaboration with the departments of sociology, psychology, and law. Professional sociologists have been recruited as an additional resource for personal and professional development and supervised, internship. The department's teachers are also active researchers, which guarantees research-related teaching.

Uppsala university offers an education in social work from first-cycle qualification in sociology to second-cycle studies with master's degree, as well as third-cycle education and with doctoral degree in social work.

History

Social work as an education was established at the Department of sociology in 2007 through the introduction of the bachelor's programme in social work. Uppsala University was in 2008 granted degree-awarding powers for the sociology program. The same year the first batch of students were admitted, who also had the opportunity to graduate in sociology.

At the turn of the year 2017/18 CESAR was formed — Centre for Social Work was host for the sociology program. Organisationally CESAR was placed at the Department of Sociology but had its own board of directors. In connection to CESAR being established the first professor in social work was recruited and social work became its own research topic at Uppsala University. A postgraduate in social work was established in 2018 and was followed by a second-cycle education in social work within the master's programme for social sciences in 2019. In January 2023 the Department of Social Work was established.

Throughout the years the sociology programme has been the link between the university and the social work's field, both on regional level but also on a national level. Already at the planning stage of the sociology programme representatives of relevant businesses and organisations in Uppsala region participated in the development and were represented in program counsels who followed the work of the program. In the beginning a network of contacts were established and became in the early years the base for recruiting guest lecturers for the education. The network has played a role in the development of field visits and places for the course's supervised business-based education, within non-profits and government-controlled businesses.