About Us

Along with the deepening of China's reform and opening up, social work is playing an increasingly important role in recent years. To promote the development of a harmonious society and building the force of social work personnel, Academic Degree Appraising Committee of the State Council decided to carry out professional degree education of social work, granting Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) in 2009. The Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (GSCASS) is one of universities which are the pilot units where MSW education has been developed. GSCASS has started recruiting MSW students since 2010.

As China's first graduate school to recruit PhD candidates in sociology, GSCASS not only possesses solid strength in sociological teaching and research, but also has accumulated valuable experience after having educated graduate candidates in social work for many years. Led by the well-known sociologists, such as Lu Xueyi, Jing Tiankui and Li Peilin, GSCASS has formed a high-level research and teaching team. The sociologists participated many times in drafting the policy and advisory work on strengthening the building of social work personnel in China. Among the 32 members of the Committee of Experts of China Social Work Association, 6 of them are from GSCASS. The school has also established close relationships with the relevant government agencies, social work organizations, and some universities. A group of senior social workers and experts have been employed to work as part-time teachers at the school, and specialty practice will be arranged under the supervision in accordance with international standards.

The target of MSW education in GSCASS is to develop candidates’ compound talents of speciality, capability and knowledge, focusing on social policy research and social work management. There are four professional emphases including social policy, community development, social work theory and practice, social organization and management.

The professional education of MSW in GSCASS aims to cultivate the candidates’ professional values of being "people-oriented, helpful and self-reliable, fair and just", helping them to master the social work theories and methods, gain the knowledge about China's national conditions and social policies, have the strong capacity for social service planning, implementation, supervision, evaluation and research, and achieve the competence to deal with social services and social management for different areas and people. The graduates with the degree will be qualified for management positions in state ministries, social welfare departments, social organizations, NGO, NPO as well as grass-roots communities. They will also be competent for teaching and research work, or go to enterprises and institutions engaging in social work practice.

Education Center for Master of Social Work (MSW), which is a department under the direct administration of GSCASS, is in charge of the students enrollment, teaching management and discipline construction as well. Since its establishment in 2009, the Education Center has been seeking from the following three aspects to create a distinctive brand of MSW education with the characteristics of the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

1. quality courses and individual learning -- In teaching, the Education Center not only absorbs advanced teaching content and methods from both domestic and international schools, with the focus on the balance between speciality, capability and knowledge, but also takes full advantage of CASS's academic and scholarly resources, and makes good use of advanced teaching facilities and laboratories. Students can study according to their personal academic interests by choosing among the multi-research areas, and elective courses.

2. broad vision and local characteristics -- As social work is a discipline and occupation originating in the west, the major problem arising in social work education is how to combine it with China's reality so as to achieve the localization. There are many experts in GSCASS who are familiar with the national conditions, and understand the progress of the localization of social work in China. Their study and practical experience will help students deepen the understanding of the characteristics of China’s social policy and social work practice in current situation, highlighting the social work practice with Chinese characteristics.

3, strengthening specialty practice and double-tutor system -- GSCASS will offer adequate specialty practice bases of high quality, and students are required to complete a total of 800 hours specialty practice during the school. Specialty practice is scheduled from the second semester with two concentrations of time for practice, in at least two areas. Some experts from outside will be invited to join the tutor group of GSCASS to guide students. Students study under the guidance of the tutor group through the first half of their school, and in the latter half choose a tutor from the tutor group according to their academic interest. The school will then appoint an outstanding social worker as the second tutor for each student. Both tutors will work together to guide their student’s further study, specialty practice and thesis writing.