Social Work

How are social services to be organised when social inequalities in age and between age groups are becoming more acute, and where there are regions left “out on a limb” with shrinking infrastructure and health and social care provision?

The objective of the course of studies is the professionalisation of demographically sensitive social work, particularly through the skills to draw up and develop robust concepts for working with old people and cross-generationally, the skills to put these concepts into practice with effective organisational design, the skills for interdisciplinary cooperation with other professions, institutions and social services for the purpose of more helpful design of social space and life-worlds, and the skills to conceive, implement and evaluate practice-related research.

In semester 1 students acquire basic knowledge on the life situation of older people, the ageing process, the life course and intergenerational relationships, which is complemented by acquiring more advanced knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods.

In semester 2, the emphasis is on the legal, institutional and economic fundamentals as well as strategies for preventive action and for active intervention.

Semester 3 consists predominantly of a project study, complemented by engagement with the methods of ageing planning and reporting as well as support and care management.

The results of the project study can then be carried forward into the Master’s thesis.

Admission to the Master‘s programme Social Work in an Ageing Society requires a good university degree (minimum 2.0 in German grade system) completed over a standard course duration of at least 7 semesters or at least 210 credits in the field of social and health sciences. Applicants who cannot meet the requirement for 210 credits but can provide evidence of at least 180 credits will be checked individually.
 
Please note, that the language of instruction is German. Foreign applicants must prove they have adequate knowledge of German. Evidence of the necessary German language skills can be provided in the form of:

• Goethe Certificate C2
• DSH II
• DSD II
• TestDaF (minimun 16 total points & minimun level 3 in the examination modules)
• ÖSD C2
• TELC Deutsch C1 Hochschule

In addition, evidence must be provided of knowledge of the English language to level B2 of the Common European Framework.