Master of Social Work
Bluffton University’s Master of Social Work program, conducted in partnership with Goshen College, equips students with advanced knowledge and skills to meet the mental health needs of our communities.
The mission of the MSW program is: “Shaped by Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition and the social work profession’s core values of social justice, service, the importance of human relationships, integrity, competence and the dignity and worth of every person, the Master of Social Work (MSW) program’s mission is to prepare students for specialized practice in mental health with an emphasis on anti-racism and anti-oppressive practices, and integration of spirituality.”
The MSW program consists of 57 credit hours that can be completed in 2 to 4 years. Students with a BSW from a CSWE-accredited program within the last 10 years may be admitted with advanced standing and earn the MSW degree after completing 30 credit hours in 1 to 2 years. (The 1-year path will be available beginning fall 2024.) Instructors record lectures and podcasts that students watch at their convenience. Each course has a weekly 1-hour live Zoom class to discuss the lectures and podcasts for that week, engage in activities and do Q&A about upcoming assignments. Zoom classes are held in the evenings.
Students complete field education hours in a social service organization that is local for the student. The MSW field director arranges field education placements in conversation with students. Students complete their field hours over two consecutive semesters or in one semester.
The MSW program has approvals from the state and from the Higher Learning Commission. The MSW program expects to be granted accreditation candidacy with the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in the 2023-24 academic year with the intention to achieve accreditation in 2026. According to CSWE, “Students admitted during or after the academic year in which the program is granted candidacy will be recognized as having graduated from an accredited program, once the program is fully accredited.”
Career opportunities
Our MSW program specializes in mental health, preparing students for a variety of
roles such as counselor/therapist, program manager, and community or policy advocate. Social
workers are employed in a wide variety of settings including community mental health,
hospitals, schools, and social service agencies and provide services to people across
the lifespan.
Master of Social Work (MSW)
(57 hours)
Generalist courses
(27 hours)
SWK 500 Foundations of Social Work and Social Work Values and Ethics (3)
SWK 510 Foundations of Social Work Practice with Individuals and Families (3)
SWK 520 Foundations of Social Work Practice with Groups, Organizations, and Communities
(Macro) (3)
SWK 530 Racism and Oppression: Advancing Human Rights and Justice (3)
SWK 540 Human Behavior in the Social Environment (3)
SWK 550 Social Policy (3)
SWK 560 Social Work Research (3)
SWK 570 Generalist Field Education I (3)
SWK 571 Generalist Field Education II (3)
Specialization courses:
(30 hours)
SWK 600 Engagement and Assessment with Individuals (3)
SWK 610 Intervention with Individuals (3)
SWK 620 Advanced Social Work Practice with Families and Groups (3)
SWK 630 Advanced Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities (3)
SWK 640 Addictions (3)
SWK 650 Mental Health Policy (3)
SWK 660 Social Work Evaluation (3)
SWK 670 Specialized Field Education I (3)
SWK 671 Specialized Field Education II (3)
SWK 680 Integrative Seminar and Career Advancement (3)
courses
SWK 500 FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL WORK VALUES AND ETHICS (3)
This course explores social work ethics and values and how they affect practice with
individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Utilizing anti-racist
and anti-oppressive lenses, students learn social work’s history, mission, roles,
and the intersection with spirituality and religion. Foci include communication, self-awareness,
and self-care in preparation for graduate education and career.
SWK 510 FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES (3)
This foundational course in social work practice invites students to build their knowledge
and skills in the engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation of individuals
and families. Students will learn a strengths-based approach to social work practice
that embraces diversity and respects client self-determination. Also taught will be
social work roles in providing case management and crisis intervention to individuals
and families.
SWK 520 FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH GROUPS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND COMMUNITIES
(MACRO) (3)
This foundational course in social work practice invites students to build their knowledge
and skills in the engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation of groups,
organizations, and communities. Students will learn the purposes and characteristics
of support, psychoeducation, and task groups as well as gain skills in leading these
types of groups. The characteristics and general policies and practices of not-for-profit,
for-profit, and public organizations, and public-private initiatives will be examined.
Community development skills such as asset mapping, needs assessments, logic models,
SWOT analyses, and social action campaigns will be introduced and examined.
SWK 530 RACISM AND OPPRESSION: ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS AND JUSTICE (3)
This course addresses how racism, oppression, and other ongoing injustices shape human
experiences and how they influence social work practice at the individual, family,
group, organizational, and community levels. Students will gain knowledge on how social
workers work across the globe to eliminate oppressive structural barriers to advance
human rights, reduce inequities, and ensure dignity and respect for all. Students
will embrace cultural humility as they recognize the extent to which culture’s structures
and values create privilege and power resulting in systemic oppression.
SWK 540 HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT (3)
This course presents theories of human development and functioning across the life
span, including systems, ecological, and person-in-environment. This course also discusses
models and frameworks by Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg, and their critics; and spiritual
development. Students will gain knowledge of how human behavior in the social environment
informs engagement, assessment, and intervention in social work practice, and articulate
the influences of institutional racism and systemic oppression.
SWK 550 SOCIAL POLICY (3)
This course covers social policy at the local, state, federal, and global levels that
affects well-being, human rights and justice, service delivery, and access to social
services. Learn the historical, social, racial, cultural, economic, organizational,
environmental, and global influences that affect social policy and how they influence
service delivery and social work practice. Students will gain skills in policy formulation,
analysis, implementation, and evaluation as well as engaging and advocating for anti-racist
and anti-oppressive policies.
SWK 560 SOCIAL WORK RESEARCH (3)
This course provides students with a framework for research-informed practice through
the lens of social work values and ethics. Students learn how to access, critique,
and synthesize empirically sound research using anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspectives
to inform decisions pertaining to practice, policy, and programs. Students will develop
appropriate research questions using qualitative and quantitative approaches. They
will learn how to access, understand, and use secondary data.
SWK 570 GENERALIST FIELD EDUCATION I (3)
As the “signature pedagogy’ for social work education, field work provides students
the opportunity to apply ethics, values, knowledge, and skills in a practice setting,
with supervision and support. In consultation with students, the MSW field office
places each student in a field setting the semester preceding the student’s enrollment
in SWK 570. Each student completes 200 hours in the practice setting (and an additional
200 hours in SWK 571); participating in six weekly, online group labs with the MSW
field office (these hours count toward the 200 hours). An MSW faculty member meets
with each student and field instructor a minimum of three times during SWK 570. Credit/No
credit.
SWK 571 GENERALIST FIELD EDUCATION II (3)
As the “signature pedagogy’ for social work education, field work provides students
the opportunity to apply ethics, values, knowledge, and skills in a practice setting,
with supervision and support. In SWK 571, the student completes 200 hours in the same
field setting as SWK 570 (for a total of 400 clock hours). No lab. An MSW faculty
member meets with each student and field instructor a minimum of two times during
SWK 571. Credit/No credit
SWK 600 ENGAGEMENT AND ASSESSMENT WITH INDIVIDUALS (3)
This course teaches engagement and assessment strategies for social work practice
with individual clients. Engagement reflects the importance of human relationships,
is trauma-informed, and respects client identities. Assessment in mental health practice
is a collaborative process of defining presenting challenges, respecting client self-determination,
and identifying client strengths to develop a mutually agreed-upon plan. Assessment
includes knowledge of theoretical frameworks and psychopathology/DSM diagnoses. This
course helps students understand how bias, power, privilege, and personal values and
experiences may affect their engagement and assessment with clients different from
themselves.
SWK 610 INTERVENTION WITH INDIVIDUALS (3)
This course engages students in learning intervention theories and to practice intervention
and evaluation strategies for social work practice with individual clients. Social
workers understand and apply evidence-informed interventions to achieve client goals
utilizing theories of human behavior and person-in-environment. This course helps
students understand how trauma, bias, power, privilege, and personal values and experiences
may affect their interventions with clients different from themselves.
SWK 620 ADVANCED SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH FAMILIES AND GROUPS (3)
This course teaches engagement, assessment, and intervention strategies for social
work practice with families and therapeutic groups. Students are invited to understand
and apply evidence-informed theories and interventions for social work practice with
families and groups. Practice with families acknowledges diverse family constellations,
works across the lifespan, and recognizes and responds to violence within family systems.
Students learn the role of therapeutic groups and how to form and facilitate them.
Social workers understand how trauma, bias, power, privilege, and personal values
and experiences may affect mental health practice with families and groups.
SWK 630 ADVANCED SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH ORGANIZATIONS AND COMMUNITIES (3)
This course teaches engagement, assessment, and intervention strategies for social
work practice with organizations and communities. Students are invited to understand
and apply evidence-informed, interprofessional interventions and collaborations for
mental health practice with organizations and communities. Students learn leadership
and managerial skills including supervision, budgeting, grant writing, and strategic
planning for use in a range of organizational settings and serving diverse populations.
Knowledge and skills for community development are also taught, including interprofessional
and inter-religious collaboration, coalitions, logic models, and SWOT analyses.
SWK 640 ADDICTIONS (3)
This course teaches engagement, assessment, and intervention strategies for social
work practice with individuals with addictions including substance misuse, eating
disorders, and gambling. Students are invited to understand and ethically apply evidence-informed,
clinical and interprofessional interventions and collaborations for individuals with
addictions and co-occurring mental and addictive disorders. Topics covered in this
course include treatment types and levels, stages of change, and the role of bias,
power, privilege, and spirituality.
SWK 650 MENTAL HEALTH POLICY (3)
This course examines mental health policies at the federal, state, and local levels
as they relate to mental health treatment, service delivery, and intervention models
and also settings such as community mental health, criminal justice, health care (VAs),
housing, and private practice. The course guides social work students to understand
the role of Medicaid, Medicare, and third-party insurers in clients’ accessing mental
health care and sources of funding for organizations. Students also gain skill in
appraising and advocating for mental health policy that is ethical, anti-racist, and
anti-oppressive.
SWK 660 SOCIAL WORK EVALUATION (3)
This course prepares students to conduct evaluation as an ongoing component of the
dynamic and interactive process of mental health practice with and on behalf of diverse
individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Students gain the knowledge
and skills to evaluate processes and outcomes to increase mental health practice,
policy, and service delivery effectiveness. Social workers use qualitative and quantitative
methods for evaluating mental health outcomes and practice effectiveness through anti-racist
and anti-oppressive lenses.
SWK 670 SPECIALIZED FIELD EDUCATION I (3)
As the “signature pedagogy’ for social work education, field work provides students
the opportunity to apply ethics, values, knowledge, and skills in a practice setting,
with supervision and support. In consultation with students, the MSW field office
places each student in a field setting the semester preceding the student’s enrollment
in SWK 670. Each student completes 250 hours in the practice setting (and an additional
250 hours in SWK 671). Students participate in six weekly, online group labs with
the MSW field office (these hours count toward the 250 hours). An MSW faculty member
meets with each student and field instructor a minimum of three times during SWK 670.
Credit/No credit.
SWK 671 SPECIALIZED FIELD EDUCATION II (3)
As the “signature pedagogy’ for social work education, field work provides students
the opportunity to apply ethics, values, knowledge, and skills in a practice setting,
with supervision and support. Each student completes 250 hours in the same practice
setting as SWK 670 (in addition to the 250 hours in SWK 670). An MSW faculty member
meets with each student and field instructor a minimum of two times during SWK 671.
Credit/No credit.
SWK 680 INTEGRATIVE SEMINAR AND CAREER ADVANCEMENT (3)
As evidenced through a capstone project, this course facilitates students’ integration
of social work knowledge, skills, ethics, and values. This course prepares students
for professional social work practice through preparation for social work licensure,
supervision, and lifelong learning. Students re-examine their vision, skills, and
preparation for securing and maintaining social work employment.
Admission process:
- Complete our free application at bluffton.edu/apply, including a resume.
- Submit official transcripts from all previous institutions. GPA of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (or equivalent) is required.
- Submit Personal Statement Form.
- Request to have two online recommendation forms submitted on your behalf.
- *Some candidates will be required to interview with the program director.
- *If you don’t meet general acceptance requirements, you will be asked to submit the MSW Special Admissions Request Form to detail how you will be successful in the program.
- *If your BSW degree was earned more than 10 years ago, you will be asked to submit the MSW Special Admissions Request Form for Advanced Standing.
- Upon acceptance, submit $200 deposit to secure spot in the cohort.
More information on MSW admissions.
For admissions questions, please contact admissions@bluffton.edu or 419-358-3257.
Tuition information
Master of Social Work
(30-57 credit hour program): $500 per credit hour
March 2024