In the master degree programme Social Work, you receive an academic education at the highest level that closely combines practice, teaching, and research. The programme offers different specialisations that you can choose from, thus individualising your experience.
You select your first specialisation for the 1st and 2nd semesters:
Case Management
You focus on the organisation of case-related support in multidisciplinary settings. You acquire knowledge at the case and system levels as well as leadership and control competencies in projects and familiarise yourself with supply structures in the social and medical fields.
Social Transformation
You deal with digital life-worlds in different areas of Social Work activity. You acquire competencies in the fields of user involvement, activism, and the organisation of democratic processes.
You can individualise your studies once more in the 3rd and 4th semesters:
Democracy Development
You dedicate yourself to democracy-related challenges and the basic principles of democracy development. In doing so, you examine the role of Social Work in democratic negotiation processes and, on this basis, develop practical skills for designing democracy-enhancing measures.
Designing Organisations, Teams, and Group Processes
You learn about the structures, cultures, and processes of social organisations and their impact on the practice of Social Work. You acquire leadership and management skills as well as participatory methods in group, team, and organisation settings.
From the Study Programme
Your Individual Study Plan
In the module “Professional Identity and Personal Development”, you develop your individual educational plan together with experts, thus systematically expanding your profile through, e.g., internships, job shadowing, optional subjects, study trips, or participation in specialist conferences.
Research Projects
In the course of your studies, you become a member of the research team at the Ilse Arlt Institute for Social Inclusion Research and you write your master thesis. In this way, you benefit from close mentoring, mutual support, and a predictable graduation date.
Window of Opportunity
In the 4th semester, you have the possibility to expand your personal profile by broadening your education to include interdisciplinary perspectives and viewpoints. Depending on your individual interests and objectives, you can choose from a wide range of offers:
- multidisciplinary offers of USTP
- offers from partner institutions
- international and interdisciplinary vocational offers such as hackathons, specialist conferences, or game jams
- in-house and external asynchronous offers such as
Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs)
