The Baccalaureate degree in Social Work has been offered at the University of Arkansas since 1940. The School has one of the oldest undergraduate social work programs in the United States. The program is fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.

The primary goal of the Baccalaureate Social Work (BSW) program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville is to prepare culturally competent beginning level professional generalist practitioners. The School of Social Work seeks, to prepare professional social workers who have a deep appreciation for human diversity and who are committed to the enhancement of human well being and to the alleviation of poverty and oppression. The program also seeks to prepare students for continuing their professional development beyond the baccalaureate degree including graduate study in social work.

Our core curriculum includes the study of human behavior and the social environment, social work practice, social welfare policy, research, and field instruction. Content on diversity, social and economic justice, and values and ethics is emphasized throughout the curriculum.

BSW Goals
The goals and objectives of the Baccalaureate Social Work Program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville are consistent with the teaching, research and service missions of the University. The University serves as the major center of liberal and professional education and as the primary land-grant campus in the state. The BSW program seeks to accomplish its goals and objectives through a curriculum that not only offers content in the specific curriculum content areas listed below, but also through integration among these content areas:

1. Social work values and ethics
   
2. Diversity
   
3. Populations-at-risk and Social and Economic Justice (people of color, women, gay and lesbian persons and persons distinguished by age, ethnicity, culture, class, religion, and physical or mental ability)
   
4. Human behavior and the social environment
   
5. Social welfare policy and services
   
6. Social work practice
   
7. Research
   
8. Field Education

BSW Program Goals
The BSW program is conceptualized in such a way that it has two primary educational goals. Accomplishment of these goals is achieved through the provision of information and experiences necessary for students to demonstrate achievement of fourteen specific educational outcomes identified by the program (and the profession through CSWE) as essential characteristics of beginning level generalist practitioners capable of continuing professional development.

Educational Goals

1. Preparation for culturally competent, empirically based, multi-system beginning level professional generalist practice across the life course.
   
2. Preparation for continuous life-long learning after graduation.
   

Degree Handbook