Courses/Curriculum

Integrated programme content and structure:

Coming from different regions of the world and different fields of social work, Semester 1 at the University of Lincoln aims to establish a common foundation among students in the knowledge, skills and ethical principles needed for advanced understandings of social work. Considerable emphasis is placed on analysing students’ previous professional experiences.

The semester starts with a week of icebreaking and induction activities, including input about working in diverse groups, respecting each other, understanding/resolving possible conflicts and Core Academic Skills, which provides input on key aspects of postgraduate study: academic writing, utilising research, critical analysis and reflection.

Students are also introduced to the electronic resources of the University of Lincoln that they will use throughout the programme as well as the Moodle system for ADVANCES.

Students will complete a formative assignment on tackling poverty early on in the semester and feedback will help to identify both strengths and areas to improve in academic writing.

Semester 1 contains the 15 ECTS module ‘Transformational Leadership in Social Work' that will explore a range of advanced practitioner skills and includes a 10-day practice placement in a practice organisation in Lincoln.

The 5 ECTS module ‘Professional Ethics and Social Justice’ emphasises the centrality of ethics and human rights in social work practice.

The semester is completed by the 10 ECTS module ‘Critical Perspectives on Global Social Issues’ that is directed at the critical analysis of social work interventions, especially in international context.

 Students will therefore finish Semester 1 with a firm grasp of academic, analytical and practical skills and a strong knowledge base in international social work.

Semester 2 at Aalborg University trains students to produce advanced analyses of social work practice settings.

To really make changes and build up excellence in practice, it is necessary for social workers to have an analytical basis and not only try out different interesting actions. However, social workers often do not have the tools to conduct these central analyses to develop and qualify practice.

In particular, the relationship and possible inequalities between service users and social workers/authorities is a central issue in social work and therefore a key focus of the module ‘Power Relations and Actor Perspectives in Social Work’ (10 ECTS).

The focus on power and actors is closely connected to the critical approach presented and discussed during Semester 1’s module ‘Critical Issues in International Social Work.’

The module ‘Field Study and Problem Based Approaches’ lets students apply their conceptual knowledge of power and actor perspectives to specific practice settings through a 2-week observation placement in social services in Aalborg. This 10 ECTS module is based on significant small group work in producing analysis and practice recommendations in order to provide important skills in collaboration and problem-solving.

Finally, the 10 ECTS module ‘Research Methodology and Ethics’ both supports students in their observation placement and gives a foundation for research processes in Semesters 3 and 4.

The 5 ECTS Summer School (alternating between Warsaw and Paris Nanterre) focuses on ‘Innovations in the field of social intervention’. It aims to provide a forum where students, researchers and practitioners can discuss and understand the concept of innovation in the field of social work from different perspectives in order to understand how to develop social work practice. The module includes considerable exposure to non-academic settings through fieldtrips to local social services as well as presentations in class by practitioners and visiting scholars. Based on experience from the present programme the module 7 Summer School has been extended from two to three weeks to allow time for lectures, field visits and discussions among students, practitioners, researchers and academics.

Semester 3 at the University of Lisbon has been updated in the new ADVANCES programme to focus more clearly on the global context of social work, sustainable development as well as project development and entrepreneurship in social work.

Ecological and ‘green’ approaches in social work have become central over the last few years and are now explicitly addressed in the 5 ECTS module ‘Eco social work and sustainable development’. ADVANCES is one of very few Master programmes in social work to explicitly include a module on ecological understandings, thus ensuring that students are at the cutting edge of thinking on this crucial topic.

The module 5 ECTS ‘Social Work Practice in a Global Context’ provides a strong understanding of different international institutions and perspectives in every day social work activities.

5 ECTS modules on ‘Social Responsibility and Entrepreneurship’ and ‘Project Planning and Management  in social work’ will support students in becoming social work leaders through input on how to develop new services and projects and connects to module 2 in Semester 1.

Finally, the 10 ECTS module ‘Research Design and Planning’ is focused on supporting students with planning their Research Project/thesis in Semester 4, drawing on related modules in Semesters 1 and 2.

Semester 4 synthesises the skills and knowledge from taught modules and from collected data in social work practices by preparing a 25,000 word Research Project/thesis (25 ECTS).

Students will design and undertake an applied research project, thereby gaining crucial skills in conducting action-oriented social research and a firm basis for applied social research or further doctoral study in social sciences. The demand for practice implications in both the written and the oral part of the project ensures a more career-relevant research experience than traditional dissertations.

Students will be distributed equally among university partners by the consortium for their research projects and given the option to nominate first, second and third choice destinations. Local supervisors from the university where students are enrolled will be allocated for the whole semester.

To strengthen the impact on social work and to emphasize the global perspective in the research project small group supervision will be established through Skype involving one academic and three or four fellow students. The small group seminars will explore two important aspects of the ADVANCES Research Project: international relevance of the topic and the implications of the research findings for social work practice.

Crucially, students will be responsible for generating their own research topics in order to ensure maximum fit with their career goals and professional interests. Planning for the research projects will begin during the Summer School at the end of Year One to ensure maximum support and time to organize the research process.

The consortium and associate partners will offer up to 5 students in each cohort the opportunity to visit the non-EU associate partner universities for one month of data collection.

ADVANCES students will present their finished research at a Student Research Conference. This event will bring all second year students together, share knowledge generated by the research projects and provide the opportunity for a joint graduation event.

The Student Research Conference is designed to be a less intimidating and more inclusive event than the oral defences traditionally used in many countries and will be key element of the Summer School attended by 1st-year students and EM scholars.

Research reports and videos of student presentations will be published on the course website with the permission of students and information will be provided to assist students with publishing in professional and academic journals.