BSW On-Campus Program
Students in the on-campus program complete their course work at the University of Maine in Orono, entering as first-year students or as transfer students.
The UM School of Social Work educates social workers from a generalist perspective of social work practice. The undergraduate curriculum in Social Work builds upon a solid liberal arts foundation with courses in human behavior and the social environment, social welfare policies and issues, social work research, social work practice, and field instruction.
Curriculum
The BSW curriculum includes general education requirements, which all University of Maine undergraduates complete, as well as social work prerequisites, social work core courses, and the BSW practice sequence. BSW students have a great deal of flexibility in choosing how to fulfil general education requirements and, in some cases, which social work prerequisites and core courses they choose. The sample plan of study below provides one example of how a BSW student might complete the requirements for their degree.
General Education Requirements
Students in the BSW program complete general education requirements to provide breadth of exposure to courses in the sciences and humanities. Specific requirements include course work in ethics, western cultural traditions, social contexts and institutions, cultural diversity and international perspectives, population and the environment, artistic and creative expression, quantitative literacy, applied and lab sciences, a capstone experience and a total of 120 credit hours. While social work prerequisites, core courses, and the practice sequence fulfill some of these requirements, BSW students have a great deal of flexibility to pursue interests in addition to social work.
Social Work Prerequisites
Social work perquisite courses, which students typically complete in their first two years of study, ensures BSW students have foundational knowledge in philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, statistics, and writing. Social work prerequisites include:
Social Work Core Courses
Core courses provide BSW students with an essential knowledge base for practice, including social work values and ethics; an understanding of the range of roles and settings in which social workers practice; frameworks for understanding the interplay of human behavior and the social environment; and the capacity to understand and impacting research and policy. Core courses include:
The BSW Practice Sequence
As junior and seniors, BSW students complete course work to foster skill development in engagement, assessment, and intervention of individuals, families, group, communities, organizations, and institutions. These courses are completed in conjunction with internship experiences that foster connection between classroom knowledge and real-world practice with a wide range of client systems in various community settings.
Undergraduate Minors and Certificates
Many BSW students choose to pursue a minor alongside their social work degree. Minors at the University of Maine typically consist of 18 credit hours of coursework, with specific requirements varying by program. The University of Maine offers minors in a variety of subjects complementary to social work, including child development and family relations,* interdisciplinary disability studies,* labor studies,* leadership studies, legal studies,* Maine studies,* peace and reconciliation studies, political science,* psychology, sociology, women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and many others. Certificates are offered in many of the same areas. For a full list of minors and certificates, see the Course Catalog. *Minors that can be completed entirely online.
Internship
The internship experience provides students with an opportunity to apply and connect their classroom knowledge to real-world situations by working with a wide range of client systems in various community settings. According to the Council on Social Work Education, internship is the “signature pedagogy” of social work, providing students with both direct instruction and socialization into “the fundamental dimensions of professional work in their discipline: to think, to perform, and to act intentionally, ethically, and with integrity” (2022 EPAS, p. 20). As juniors, BSW students take SWK 395, Junior Internship Experience, Parts One and Two. A central emphasis in SWK 395 is on breadth of exposure to underserved client populations and different areas of practice. As part of SWK 395, students engage in service learning. As seniors, BSW students complete a 400 hour, two-semester internship during the senior year and take the course SWK 495 BSW Generalist Internship concurrently. Learn more about the internship experience here.