MSW PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The MSW program, nationally accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), offers a broad professional education based on a systems perspective, which stresses how individuals live in their environment and how the environment affects them. The goal of the MSW Program at Florida State University is to provide quality preparation for advanced practitioners who will work with diverse client systems and problems. We emphasize empirically-based practice which focuses on preventing problems as well as treating them. Our curriculum is flexible so students can shape their own program to meet individual interests.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE The Master of Social Work degree program is flexible and designed to enable students to develop advanced professional competence by providing a curriculum that includes five sequence areas: social work practice; social policy; human behavior and the social environment; social work research; and field education. The curriculum has been developed to emphasize the common elements in all social work practice areas so that persons receiving the professional degree will be able to practice in a variety of community agencies and settings. At the master’s level, students choose one of two advanced concentrations: Clinical Social Work, which focuses on 4 | 2021-2022
theories, research and practice with individuals, families, groups, and communities; or Social Leadership, which focuses on the theory, research and practice of social work in organizations, administrations, policy-making and program evaluation. While the curriculum is structured in this two concentration format, students are welcome to take courses in either concentration or customize their program of study by applying for our joint pathway and certificate programs. The Tallahassee main campus offers students an opportunity to pursue either the Clinical Concentration, Social Leadership Concentration or a joint pathway program, while the online program solely offers the Clinical Concentration. Note: Students must complete the MSW within seven years of beginning the program.
TRADITIONAL MSW CURRICULUM The College offers full-time and part-time Master of Social Work programs comprised of sixty-one (61) credit hours of required social work courses and electives. Students bring to their graduate studies a liberal arts perspective and build on this background during the first year of the program which consists of a foundation curriculum that covers the professional body of knowledge required by the social work profession. Courses are divided by sequence areas that include: practice, policy, research, human behavior and a 10 credit hour field internship (approximately 432 field
