This five-year degree offers a comprehensive and flexible combined degree program that qualifies you as an accredited social worker, while also allowing you to enhance your qualification with majors and minors that complement the Bachelor of Social Work. While this combined degree requires a major or minor in Sociology, or a minor in Social Policy, you can choose another major or minor in various interest areas such as diversity studies, gender studies, Aboriginal Studies, or philosophy. You'll undertake integrated studies in social sciences, social policy and social work theory and practice, with a strong emphasis on Australian and comparative social welfare studies. In the last two years of the degree all students undertake the professional social work program, which includes two fieldwork placements supervised by highly skilled and experienced practitioners in a variety of settings. We develop field education learning expectations across the program and aim to develop values, skills and knowledge for levels from beginner to a practitioner capable of meeting the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Practice Standards.
Sociology is the study of human behaviour, beliefs and identity in the context of social interaction, social relationships, institutions and change. Learn how society shapes us, how we shape society, how the 'modern' world came about, and how it might develop in the future. When you study sociology you will be introduced through our first year units to key ideas and concepts to help you understand social life and social change. You will also be introduced to methods and techniques that will enable you to undertake your own research. These foundational ideas will be consolidated in your second and third year where your knowledge will be broadened by the study of particular areas within sociology, such as religion, mass media, sport, environmental issues, and social movements. Key concepts will include inequality, class, gender, power, deviance, change, agency and identity. You will engage with the various aspects of sociology in classroom situations but also in the real world. You will learn to write and think sociologically using essays, reports, oral group work, posters, debates and new social media. As a graduate of this major you will have the necessary foundations to better understand and engage with the globalising world.
