Department of Social Work

MC-SOCW

If you are in the final year of your bachelor degree you can still apply. Your application will be considered pending the outcome and availability of your final results. You may be made a conditional offer in this circumstance pending the satisfactory completion of your bachelor degree.

Yes, you can apply on the basis of a bachelor degree in any discipline.

All applications will be considered on academic merit regardless of when previous studies were undertaken. However, it will be necessary for you to demonstrate your capacity to study now. This may be evidenced in your referee reports, or by undertaking a subject through the Community Access Program (CAP).

You can demonstrate this with your degree testamur (certificate) or your transcript, provided the transcript states that the degree was completed and the date of completion.

Students who completed their bachelor degree at the University of Melbourne do not need to provide a testamur or transcript.

You may supply original or certified copies of documents with your application.

A certified copy is a photocopy of the original document which has the signature and official stamp of one of the following people, indicating that they have sighted the original document:

Barrister or solicitor, Police in Charge of Station, Pharmacist, Doctor, Dentist, Principal of School, Justice of Peace, Clerk of Court.

The signature and stamp must appear on every page of the document.

This varies from year to year and is entirely dependent on the standard of the applicants for that year. As such, we do not publish a GPA requirement.

You should provide one professional referee report. Your referee should state the capacity in which they know you, and should comment on your interpersonal skills, work performance, organisational skills and the like.

No.

You can still apply but you should provide evidence of your continuing work experience such as a letter from your employer.

We are interested in your experience of work with different kinds of people experiencing different kinds of social and personal issues. Paid or volunteer work experience in welfare delivery and health and community services such as:

• mentoring, community support and advocacy programs for children, young people, disabled people or the elderly
• home visiting, homework clubs
• personal care and disability support
• child care and educational settings
• crisis care and outreach services such as homeless outreach, emergency relief, meals programs
• telephone counselling services
• community development projects within Australia or overseas

If in doubt about the relevance of your work experience please contact us to discuss your individual experience.

Your personal statement should be about one page and should document your reasons for wishing to enrol in the Master of Social Work. It should demonstrate your general awareness of social issues in the community and give some attention to the kind of relevant knowledge and skills you already have and wish to develop further. You may attach a short CV detailing your work and volunteer experience.

As the Master of Social Work is a graduate course, only social work subjects undertaken at a graduate level will be considered for credit. Any subjects completed as part of a Bachelor of Social Work degree cannot be credited as part of the Master of Social Work degree.

Please refer to the Credit Application Guidelines for further information.

Turnaround time will usually be a couple of weeks for local students. We encourage you to apply as early as possible to maximise your chance of entry, as there are a limited number of places in the course.

Applications from international students work on a different timeframe, and may take a month or more to process, particularly if overseas qualifications need to be assessed for equivalency.

Incomplete applications will always take longer to process.

We acknowledge receipt of applications by email / post, and applicants are notified of the outcome by email / post. The assessment process is complex and we do not supply progress updates prior to outcome notification.

No. The Master of Social Work is only delivered on campus.

No. You must apply for the coursework option. After completion of the first year of the course you can apply to enter the research component, subject to academic results.

Social Work offers only graduate-level courses. Therefore, our only entry-to-practice social work course is the Master of Social Work.