Social Work MSc
Start Dates
20 September 2027
Duration
2 years full-time
Overview
Why choose Huddersfield for this course?
- Gain a respected Social Work England–approved qualification that builds the core skills you need for confident, effective practice.
- Learn through strong partnerships with local agencies, with two assessed placements that prepare you for real-world social work.
- Develop professionally in a supportive environment that builds your reflective practice and prepares you for diverse career paths.
Accreditation and Professional Links
Recognised connections to give you an extra edge when you graduate. Read More
Approved by Social Work England, this master’s degree is a professional qualifying course that prepares you for a rewarding career in social work. It’s designed to help you build the knowledge, skills and confidence you’ll need to support people and communities with care and integrity.
You’ll learn through strong partnerships between the University and local social work agencies, including statutory, voluntary and service user-led organisations. These collaborations give you real insight into practice and the chance to develop as a reflective, thoughtful and ethical social worker in line with the Professional Capabilities Framework for Social Work. The course emphasises anti-oppressive practice and the importance of working sensitively in a diverse society.
You’ll develop a wide range of skills—from communication and assessment to analysis and reflective practice—while gaining a solid grounding in legislation, policy and human behaviour. You’ll learn alongside service users, carers, experienced practitioners and university tutors, supported by a research-active social work department with an international reputation.
Across two assessed placements, you’ll put your learning into practice in real-world settings. These placements are delivered through long-standing partnerships with local agencies and form a key part of your professional development.
This course is part of the Yorkshire Urban and Rural Teaching Partnership, an accredited Social Work Teaching Partnership between local authority employers and the Universities of Huddersfield and York.
After completing this course, you’ll be eligible to apply for registration with Social Work England, which is the regulatory body for social workers in England. Graduates go on to work with a wide range of service user groups, including children and families, vulnerable adults, young people and those with learning disabilities or mental health needs.
Entry Requirements
Entry requirements for this course are considered on an individual basis and are normally:
- An Honours degree (2:1 or above) in a relevant subject.
- Applicants with a lower second class (2:2) honours degree in a relevant subject will be considered on an individual basis.
- GCSE English Language or English Literature (or equivalent Ofqual regulated qualification) at grade 4 or above, or grade C or above if awarded under the previous GCSE grading scheme. You do not require GCSE/Level 2 Maths for entry onto this course. However, please be aware that some employers may require this in addition to your completed degree.
- All applicants should have relevant paid, voluntary, or personal experience in social care, community or third sector organisations.
- You also need a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and occupational health clearance prior to registration.
We arrange these as part of the application process. You will be required to sign a self-declaration at the start of each year. All police contact during the course must be reported to the course leader as a matter of urgency and may lead to suspension or termination. We will request an Overseas Police Check if you have lived in a country outside of the UK for 6 months or more (whether continuously or in total) in the last 10 years before applying to us and whilst aged 18 or over.
At interview you will be required to declare any involvement by social services relating to children or vulnerable persons living in your care or for whom you provide care, living in a household in which you live, or have lived. Information you provide may have to be discussed with the Local Authority Designated Officer before a decision is made on your application.
If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 7.0 overall with no element lower than 6.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.
You may be eligible to gain Recognition for your Prior Learning (RPL).
If you have alternative qualifications you may wish to contact us for advice before applying.
You will be shortlisted on the strength of your written application and must demonstrate how you have used your previous experience (for example paid, voluntary, personal and educational) to help you develop some knowledge and understanding of the tasks and roles undertaken by social workers.
Course Details
Teaching and Assessment
Discover what to expect from your tutor contact time, assessment methods, and feedback process.
Placements
During the course you will undertake a 70 day placement in year 1 and a 100 day placement in year 2. These are managed and assessed by experienced practice educators, who provide opportunities for you to develop and apply the knowledge, value base and professional capabilities required of social workers in qualified practice.
Placements are undertaken in wide variety of settings within the voluntary and statutory sectors, including local authorities, national charities, drug and alcohol services, housing agencies, sexual health services and a wide variety of other social care and welfare services. Placements are also provided across a wide range of service user groups and you may have the opportunity to work with vulnerable adults, children and families, young people, people with learning disabilities or people with mental health issues.
Your Career
Previous graduates from courses in this subject area have gone on to work in a variety of roles such as Education mental health practitioner, Family support worker, High intensity therapist, Social worker.*
Source: Prospects
98% Percentage of the University's postgraduate students go on to work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating.
* HESA Graduate Outcomes 2022/23, UK domiciled.
Fees and Finance
This is the tuition fee for 2026/27 entry. Tuition fees for 2027/28 will be published once the information becomes available.
This information is for Home students applying to study at the University of Huddersfield in the academic year 2026/27.
Please note that tuition fees for subsequent years may rise in line with inflation (RPI-X) and/or Government policy.
For detailed information please visit https://www.hud.ac.uk/study/fees/
Find out more about the national Social Work bursary offered by the NHS Business Services Authority.
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If you have any questions about Fees and Finance, please email the Student Finance Team.
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If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and if you are unhappy with the change we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.
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Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.
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We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff being unable to teach due to illness, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to pandemics, other disasters (such as fire, flood or war) or changes made by the government.
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