Program Overview

Program Completion Expectations

• Demonstrate well grounded knowledge, values, and skills required for advanced social work practice with urban populations;
• Demonstrate a commitment to the basic values and ethics that guide social work practice, an ability to resolve ethical dilemmas, and the ability to engage in ethical decision making;
• Demonstrate capacity to embrace ethnic and racial differences, demonstrate respect for cultural diversity, and demonstrate the capacity for working effectively with diverse client populations;
• Demonstrate commitment and skills in the promotion of social justice and equality and the elimination of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, ageism and other forms of oppression;
• Demonstrate effective oral, written, and technological communication skills in the use of self with diverse clients, colleagues, and community members;
• Demonstrate the capacity to utilize the generalist perspective as the foundation for building advanced knowledge and skills in a field of social work practice.

Core Competencies

Upon graduation from Morgan State University MSW students will have achieved at an advanced level, the following core competencies per the Council on Social Work Education 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards and the mission and goals of the Program.

• Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
• Competency 2: Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice
• Competency 3: Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
• Competency 4: Engage In Practice-informed Research and Research-informed Practice
• Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice
• Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
• Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
• Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
• Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, & Communities
• Competency 10: Apply Knowledge of African-Americans in Social Welfare as a Context for Urban Social work Practice
• Competency 11: Apply Knowledge of the dynamics and complexities of Urban Communities as the basis for Urban Social work Practice

Program Requirements

• Candidates for the Master of Social Work degree must complete forty-eight (48) academic credit hours, 12 credits of supervised internship performed in person, and complete a comprehensive portfolio. 
• All students are required to pass the MSW Comprehensive Portfolio, which serves as the final measure of students' achievement of MSW Competencies per the Council on Social Work Education and the MSU School of Social Work. The Portfolio is to be completed in the spring semester of the year in which a student is to satisfy graduation requirements.

Additional Requirements

The MSW Program expects all students to behave ethically and honestly in their academic conduct as indicated in university policies. Professional conduct is both inclusive of and broader than academic conduct and integrity. It fundamentally requires students to behave in a manner consistent with the ethical principles and standards of the social work profession, as formalized in the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics.