UC Berkeley Social Welfare began implementing a renewed Master of Social Welfare (MSW) Curriculum in the 2024-2025 academic year. For students admitted before Fall 2024, prospective students were admitted into one of three specializations.
After collecting feedback from MSW alumni and students and faculty deliberations that spanned several years, the Social Welfare Faculty voted to implement a streamlined and sustainable curricular structure to offer students more flexibility in choice of electives in the second year of the program, better align with Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accreditation standards, enact the core mission and vision of a MSW program seeking to develop “multi-level” social work practitioners, leverage the expertise of its multidisciplinary faculty, and align with the research mission of the School and campus.
Our renewed program sets students up for success by having them begin their MSW with a foundation course of study alongside their foundation practicum placement, which addresses the nine competency standards proscribed by the CSWE. This foundational year provides the essential knowledge, values, and skills needed for the rest of the program and allows students to build a broad and diverse understanding of social work, which is necessary for success in a field that is increasingly seeing complex and multi-faceted cases and intertwined social problems.
Following the foundation year, students select professionally relevant elective courses and apply for an advanced practicum placement that aligns with their specific interests and career goals. This structure ensures all students have the opportunity to expand their skills alongside a diverse cohort and under the guidance of our faculty, advancing their competencies through a specialized curriculum that meets the CSWE's requirements for an advanced curriculum.
Our MSW program is fully accredited by the CSWE.
The Council of Social Work Education is an independent body that sets programmatic (including basic competency) standards for social work programs nationwide. Graduation from an accredited program is often a requisite for post-MSW licensure in the United States. As a regular practice of our own program improvement and requirement of accreditation, the School reports program-level assessment data on student demonstration and attainment of competencies. Our assessment combines final evaluations completed by agency-based supervisors and a culminating activity administered in the Spring of the final semester of the program. Our first round of assessment data for the new curriculum will be available in Fall 2026, following the graduation of the first cohort under the renewed curriculum.
Academic Program Review:
Our renewal of the MSW curriculum coincided with the formal Academic Program Review (APR). The APR process, facilitated by the campus, includes both internal and external reviews to “sustain excellence in each scholarly discipline process, as well as pedagogy and research.” As part of this required review process, the School developed four pillars that will guide our strategic plan for the next 5-10 years:
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Advance and amplify scholarship and research for the public good.
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Deliver a rigorous and integrated curriculum.
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Grow and optimize resources.
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Nurture a collaborative culture and community.
In parallel with MSW Curricular renewal, the School has also focused on improvements in the undergraduate and doctoral programs. In 2024-2025, the School’s Doctoral Committee commenced a deep review of the PhD program and its mentoring structures, efforts which remain in progress. At the undergraduate level, a proposal was made to restructure the honors thesis; the School is piloting this new structure in AY 2025-2026. In tandem with the strategic plan, the School will refresh its continuous program assessment practices.
Lessons Learned in Year #1 of MSW Program Implementation
Opportunities to Reinforce the Purpose of Credentialing Standards
CSWE uses specific and technical terminology to describe the obligations of a credentialed program. At the level of curriculum, any credentialed program must ensure that all students are exposed to knowledge, values, and skills reflecting all nine competency standards in the foundation (first year) curriculum from which students meaningfully build on in their advanced (second) year.
Although the term that CSWE uses for a single track advanced structure such as ours is “advanced generalist,” this does not fully reflect that our renewed curriculum is intended to offer more elective choice for students and reflect our intention that multi-level students should be exposed to at least one micro-intervention and one macro-intervention to be prepared for entry level multi-level practice.
Our program is and has remained accredited by CSWE, and reporting of our changes is always made in compliance with accreditation requirements. We have consistently exceeded CSWE minimum programmatic standards.
Implementation processes require continuous monitoring, revision, and alignment with School and campus processes. Based on feedback from MSW students who entered in Fall 2024, the School is actively working to ensure information and resources are navigable and accessible, and accountability and systems of improvement are integrated into the curriculum, including both classroom and practicum settings.
Renewal of the UC Berkeley Social Welfare Website
In Fall 2024, the School launched the Social Welfare Student Hub, which serves as a central place on the website for students to access information and resources that were previously scattered and hard to navigate. (Note: The Student Hub requires a CalNet log-in.) This summer, the Student Services team has not only planned for better use of and ease of access to the Student Hub, but they are also preparing to launch a redesigned user experience for those navigating our admissions application process and learning about our academic programs. These changes are scheduled to launch by early September, in time for the UC Berkeley Graduate Admission Application opening on September 10.
Student Engagement and Involvement
With improved staff structures in place, the Student Services team can now deliver targeted and effective communication, events, and programs for prospective and current students, involving collaborations with students, faculty, and off- and on-campus networks and resources. Last Spring semester was a preview of what’s to come–two of the School’s major student-centered events, the Admitted Students Day and Career Fair, were resounding successes and exemplars of what happens when our community comes together.
The Social Welfare Student Leaders Collaborative (SLC) was also created last year to cultivate communication and collaboration between Social Welfare student organizations and representatives, with support from Student Services. This year, we are eager to keep building and formalizing student communication and feedback systems to foster a trusting, accountable, welcoming, and synergetic community among students, faculty, and staff. We are incredibly grateful to all who have thus far contributed to these efforts.
Longstanding curricular feedback
We are continuing to monitor and make efforts to address the concern that students perceive the first year of the program as “crowded” and would benefit from more in-depth coverage and additional exposure to essential skills. First-year instructors remain committed to achieving a balance between attainment of knowledge, values, and skills, and their application.
Needed improvement in Practicum
A core tenet of professional MSW education is that the practicum setting is oriented to student demonstration of competency of the nine standards. It is paramount that students' practicum settings are where students practice their application of knowledge, values and skills, and we are collaborating with practicum settings to ensure that students acquire and demonstrate competencies across the nine standards in both their foundation and advanced years.
The program has consistently received feedback that the structure of our practicum program needs renewal to ensure the quality of learning opportunities and supervision in sites. Our efforts to immediately improve these are documented below (Practicum Changes at UC Berkeley Social Welfare).
Alleviating Graduate Student Financial Distress
The School remains committed to assisting students in financing their graduate education, especially as the federal landscape shifts. MSW students actively experiencing financial distress and seeking resources can reach out to our MSW Advisor and Graduate Student Affairs Officer (GSAO), Bianca Ramos, at swmswadvisor@berkeley.edu. To support MSW graduate studies, the School continues to pay for premiums for professional liability insurance required for social work practicum placements and provides reimbursements for background checks and drug screens required by social work practicum placements. Additionally, the School provides financial support to as many qualifying MSW students as possible, beyond the $750 of professional development funds provided to all MSW students. The School has and continues to make efforts to keep the Professional Development Supplemental Tuition fees as low as possible, expand the financial support provided to students, and participate in workforce grant programs.
Workforce grant opportunities for students have different sponsors (federal or state) and often intend to prepare students for particular areas of social work practice after graduation. They have varying start and end dates, as well as different terms and conditions required of students and the School. The School pursues opportunities that are optimally beneficial and feasible for students and the School.The School of Social Welfare is currently participating in three workforce programs: the Title IV-E program focused on child welfare workforce development, the Social Work Education Capacity Expansion Grant focused on behavioral health for youth, and the Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Equity program.
Practicum Education Changes at UCB Social Welfare
A core tenet of a credentialled professional MSW education is that the practicum site is equally important to the classroom setting, and is oriented to student demonstration of competency of the nine standards. Practicum settings are where students apply their knowledge, values, and skills acquired in classroom settings and other learning environments, ensuring that students develop and demonstrate competencies across the nine standards in both their foundation and advanced years.
CSWE states (pp. 20-23):
Field education is designed to integrate the theoretical and conceptual contributions of the explicit curriculum in the field setting. It is a basic precept of social work education that the two interrelated components of curriculum—classroom and field—are of equal importance, and each contributes to the development of the requisite competencies of professional practice.
Field education programs articulate how they maintain or enhance students’ access to high-quality practicum experiences. Field education programs develop field models to prepare students for contemporary and interprofessional social work practice, including the use of various forms of technology. The program’s field education director serves as an essential contributor to the curricular development, administration, and governance of field education.
UCB Social Welfare faculty continuously evaluate our practicum program using multiple sources of data: (a) programmatic data on student attainment of competency standards, (b) direct feedback from students (i.e. surveys, focus groups, aggregate comments on course evaluations), and (c) from field-based supervisors (e.g., structured dialogue, World Cafe).
Change 1: Unit Change to the Practicum Courses
In Spring 2025, the Senate faculty voted to make a unit change to the Practicum course sequence. The change, approved by the UCB Graduate Council, now clarifies that students must complete SW 410A Foundation Practicum I (5 units), SW 410B Foundation Practicum II (5 units), SW 412A Advanced Practicum I (7 units), and SW 412B Advanced Practicum II (7 units) to satisfy the 24-unit practicum degree requirement. This change combined the practicum placement units with the practicum seminar unit. In summary,
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Foundation students (typically those in their first year in the program) were previously required to enroll in 4 units for hours completed at placement sites (SW 410A/B) and 1 unit seminar (SW 290 A/B or 402) per semester. The courses have been consolidated into a 5-unit practicum course (SW 410 A/B) per semester, which will combine site-based practicum learning and campus-based practicum learning.
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Advanced students (typically those in their second year in the program) were previously required to enroll in 6 units for hours completed at placement sites (SW 412 A/B) and 1 unit seminar (SW 292 A/B or 402) per semester. The courses have been consolidated into a 7-unit practicum course (SW 412 A/B) per semester, which will combine site-based and campus-based practicum learning. These specific changes are reflected in the practicum course syllabi.
This change will improve our students’ experience of Practicum in a number of ways:
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More Structured Supervision Allows for Less Additional On-Campus Time for Students - Student feedback collected last year showed that students were interested in fewer hours spent on campus for practicum activities, especially on days when they were not already on campus, and more structured supervision at their practicum sites.
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Streamlined Grading, Expectations, and Communication - Having one syllabus containing all practicum-related expectations simplifies the process of grading students in a way that clearly indicates whether they were making sufficient progress. It also offers opportunities to streamline communications with students and external agency-based supervisors.
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Simplified Enrollment Process - The enrollment process for students and our Student Services Office has been simplified, requiring students to enroll in only one practicum course per semester.
Change 2: Greater Support for our Partner Sites and Supervisors
For an integrated social work education that adequately prepares our students for careers in the field, it is a core responsibility of our program to (1) continuously appraise and seek to improve the quality of supervision and learning opportunities in sites, and (2) reinforce the site-based student-supervisor relationship as a primary learning dyad. In addition, CSWE requires that the program strive to integrate the knowledge, values, and skills that students are receiving in required courses with their site-based learning opportunities.
We received feedback from students that our program could better support student integration of new knowledge and skills. Feedback from site-based supervisors revealed that they wanted more easy access to our on-campus curriculum and some would benefit from templates to guide their supervision of and constructive feedback to students.
In short, our structures needed to be improved to receive and integrate joint, timely, and systematic feedback about the quality of sites, learning opportunities, and student supervision.
The School will continue to implement site visits and pre-practicum training with supervisors. In addition, the Practicum Director has developed:
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Updated learning agreements and evaluations that are more user-friendly to both students and supervisors, including a menu of tasks that might be considered in reasonably meeting objectives, that now appear on formal student learning agreements.
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A new Practicum bCourse site with weekly supervision guides for supervisors to (1) get more support in integrating practicum with on-campus curriculum, (2) have structured opportunities to give student feedback, and (3) gain skills around effective supervision of MSW students. Additionally, this bCourse site will allow the UCB Practicum team to receive more immediate and consistent feedback on the program in real time to identify and address quality assurance issues sooner, as well as to identify and attempt to proactively remediate student growth opportunities.
These measures have been put into place to reinforce (a) the basic credential-driven requirements of site-based supervisors, (b) student roles as learners, (c) that students are assigned appropriate learning tasks within their scope of knowledge and skills (e.g., a beginning social work student cannot be expected to be a substitute for an employee), and (d) that our partner agencies are responsible for delivering appropriate services to clients/ service users.
In addition, Professor Adrian Aguilera and Assistant Teaching Professor Joyce Dorado have been appointed to roles to support the Practicum Team. Dr. Aguilera will assist in the development of short and long-term strategic partnerships with agencies to bolster two-way communications and align training objectives. Dr. Joyce Dorado will support the Practicum Team in the continuous improvement of longer-term supervision supports and protocols, as well as skills infusion in the classroom.
Change 3: Supporting Student Readiness for Practicum
Student feedback has consistently indicated that they often feel “thrown into” practicum without a basic framework of practicum education and their roles as learners. Supervisor feedback strongly signals that students need additional preparation on some soft entry-level skills and the wide range of roles that social workers can play. The School has reorganized our approach to practicum education to address both concerns.
Going forward, the Practicum curriculum will re-allocate some on-campus student Practicum hours to a pre-service training that will allow students to be more prepared for and confident entering Practicum. Our program also seeks to ensure that both students and supervisors have consistent expectations from the start, with the intention of preventing downstream learning mismatches. Our intention is that on-campus practicum-related experiential activities occur at well-timed moments in the semester, sequenced with the development of learning agreements as well as other key knowledge and skills (e.g., requisite California Board of Behavioral Sciences, such as informed consent, fiduciary duties).
Change 4: Supporting Student Skill Development
Feedback from students consistently indicates their desire for more in-depth exposure to and feedback about their progress in developing real-world social work practice skills. While “real-world” opportunities to develop and receive feedback about such skills do and should occur at their practicum sites, we agree with students that our program can also simultaneously offer opportunities to support these objectives. For first-year students, the School is investing in efforts to provide these opportunities throughout their required practice courses over the Fall and Spring of the first year of the program. where they are most directly learning these skills. We also aim to link advanced students to practice and practitioner networks that align with their specific learning goals. We hope to offer advanced students more choice points to deepen their learning (e.g., opportunities to receive case consultations from experts, opportunities to “dig deeper” into a specific practice modality) and offer pathways for skills development after graduation. This choice in practicum activities for our advanced students will allow them to narrow in on the diverse specialties they are interested in and gain greater professional networks to support them throughout their careers.
Ongoing Improvements: Continuing to Deepen Connections to Alumni and Allied Agency Partners Contributing to Practicum Education
In our role as educators, we aspire to learn from and with practitioners who are delivering public and non-profit services in a variety of roles. As educators, we are grateful for our collective connections to a wide array of practice communities. We are identifying new and deeper ways to engage with the wisdom and capacity emanating from our current agency-based supervisors and alums. Students desire more exposure to practitioners who are currently delivering public and non-profit services. The School is considering various strategies to elevate and support these crucial networks, including bringing in more practitioners into required practice courses to facilitate two-way learning in skill building and potentially having future opportunities for students complete some of their Practicum training in alternative, approved activities (e.g., participation in professional development trainings aligned to student interests).
The School is committed to continuous improvement of the practicum program based on systematic feedback about student attainment of competencies, overarching school goals for curriculum (e.g., faculty), student feedback, and feedback from agency-based supervisors.
We thank all the students and practicum supervisors who provided input about practicum education. We look forward to continued efforts to continuously improve the program.