Social Work (BA)

Community work is professional social work that starts in problem neighbourhoods in order to improve the living conditions of residents. It activates residents to take responsibility for their neighbourhood and represents their interests when necessary. Methods include neighbourhood festivals, discussion groups, counselling and media work. The aim is to improve the image of the neighbourhood and resolve conflicts. The work also includes counselling and mediation activities as well as work with groups.

The Youth Welfare Office is a municipal organisation in which social workers and administrative staff work together. They inform young families about support services, ensure there are enough daycare centres and childminders and are involved in urban planning. They help young people to enter working life and deal with criminal law problems. They support parents with worries and problems with children, look for foster families or children's homes if necessary and follow up on tips if a child in a family is doing badly. They also help with custody arrangements in the event of separation and support unmarried mothers in establishing paternity. In the case of adoptions, they look for suitable adoptive parents.

Conflicts arise time and again in social work. Mediators help to find win-win solutions. During their studies, students learn to reflect on how they deal with conflicts, acquire basic knowledge of conflict theory and try out various mediation techniques. This enables them to apply elements of mediation in their everyday work and deal with conflicts professionally.

Family helpers support families, children and young people in overcoming problems, e.g. school problems, addiction, violence or conflicts with the law. They provide counselling, support in developing a functioning life together, debt regulation, household matters and leisure activities. They also promote help for relatives and neighbours and support young people in living arrangements outside the family.

School social work promotes the development of young people and offers counselling and support for pupils, parents and teachers. It deals with problems at school and at home and has become increasingly important in recent years. It includes leisure and educational work, crisis interventions, referrals to services and counselling centres and accompanies young people and their parents during transitions.

Open child and youth work supports young people up to the age of 27 in their development and in reducing disadvantages. It takes place in youth centres and clubs, youth associations and schools and includes leisure, holiday and project activities, educational work and work with new media. The work is voluntary. The increase in all-day schools leads to new demands on social work. It is also about dealing with risks and problem situations for adolescents and young adults and taking youth cultures and virtual environments into account.

Street workers seek out target groups that cannot be reached by conventional social work programmes. The work takes place in various areas of life and includes follow-up support in facilities such as counselling centres and clinics. Projects are orientated towards subcultural scene meeting points or social space-oriented. The focus of activities varies from basic care and psychosocial prevention and support to socio-cultural animation and conflict mediation.

In the Bachelor's degree programme in Social Work, the focus is on reflective application, which is taught through lectures, seminars and research-based project groups. These teaching methods give you a comprehensive insight into the broad field of society and social work.

The lectures and seminars, which often take place in small groups, are always accompanied by tutorials and enable intensive discourse with students and lecturers, which will sharpen your argumentation skills.

A special focus is placed on the approaches of research-based learning. In practical research projects, you will not only investigate the practice of social work, but also develop new models for its future. These projects establish a direct link to practical application and ensure a transfer between theory and practice as well as between research and professional action.

As part of the mentoring programme, you will have the opportunity to discuss your career path or course of study, which we can make more flexible for you. In the final semester of your degree programme, you will write your Bachelor's thesis, a piece of your own research, in which we will support you with seminars on academic work.

We have a FleX module to give you an insight into the knowledge areas of other disciplines. Here you can choose from the entire portfolio of all FHP degree programmes. You can usually choose between face-to-face teaching and digital formats and examinations. In the module handbook you will find a detailed description of the programme content, a study plan and our selection procedure.

During the internship (4th semester), you will work in one or more fields of your choice (800 hours, approx. 20 weeks). This integrated internship is accompanied by one university day per month, training supervision, method seminars and a project seminar. You can also complete your internship abroad. We will accompany you.

Further information on internships for the degree programme Social Work (BA)

The fifth semester is an ideal time to spend abroad at one of our partner universities. The integrated internship can also be an internship abroad. We offer many English-language seminars and you can attend courses at our European Digital Campus together with students from Norway, England, Spain or Belgium. Excursions to partner universities and work placements abroad round off your international portfolio.

In the Online Study Choice Assistant (OSA) of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam for the degree programme Social Work (B.A.) you will find an explanatory version of the video, a detailed description of the course of studies and examples of a possible timetable in the first semester and a study project, as well as much more content to help you decide on this degree programme.

In the currently valid module handbooks, study and examination regulations and statutes of the Department of Social and Educational Sciences you will find the module overview, a detailed description of the modules and course content, the study plan and the statutes for the selection procedure for the Social Work degree programme.

The degree programme participates in the central allocation of study places, the dialogue-oriented service procedure (DoSV) via hochschulstart.de. For the winter semester, you must register at hochschulstart. de from 15 May to 15 July and then create and submit your application in the MyCampus university portal of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Let us guide you through the procedure step by step and use our DoSV-Guide.

Documents to be submitted

Please submit the following documents as PDF files with your online application in the MyCampus university portal:

• University entrance qualification, if applicable
• Proof of professional or other previous experience relevant to the field of work, if applicable
• If applicable, university degree certificate and justification for taking up a second course of study
• Proof of service, if applicable
• If applicable, proof(s) of hardship application or application for compensation for disadvantages

Checklist

After you have completed your online application in the MyCampus university portal, you will receive a personal checklist with the following information:

• List of all supporting documents that you have uploaded as PDF files according to the information you provided in your online application.
• Notes on the further course of the procedure

Selection procedure

Applicants who fulfil the admission requirements take part in the procedure for awarding places.
In the allocation procedure for the first semester, the following are deducted in advance from the number of places to be allocated:

• All applicants who were unable to accept an earlier admission due to service, as well as all applicants who are members of the national squad of a national sports association of the German Olympic Sports Confederation
• 11 % for applicants with a foreign university entrance qualification
• 3 % for applicants for a second degree
• 3 % for applicants who are to be considered on the basis of hardship.

The remaining places are allocated 80 % according to the result of a university selection procedure and 20 % according to waiting time.

The result of the university selection procedure is determined on the basis of the following criteria (weighting in brackets):

• Average grade of the university entrance qualification (80 %)
• Grade in English (20%)

Admission

Following the university selection procedure, places are awarded in the dialogue-oriented service procedure via hochschulstart.de. Applicants with a correspondingly high ranking receive a temporary offer of admission on hochschulstart.de, which they can actively accept. Further information on the coordination phase on hochschulstart.de can be found in our DoSV Guide.

Once you have accepted the offer of admission, you will receive your notification of admission from hochschulstart.de. If you do not accept the offer of admission by the deadline, the ranking list will continue to be processed and the study place will be reallocated.

Have you accepted your place at university via hochschulstart.de? Then you have the option of submitting an enrolment application for the winter semester in the MyCampus university portal of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Once you have submitted your online application for enrolment, please submit the printed and signed application together with all required documents in paper form by the deadline. The day of the enrolment deadline is decisive for the submission of the documents, whereby the date of receipt by post at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam is decisive.

Documents to be submitted

• University entrance qualification
• If applicable, further documents according to the enrolment application form.

Do you have questions about the enrolment process at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam? We have compiled a list of frequently asked questions and answers regarding enrolment and admission.

Start of studies

After you have successfully completed the application process, we recommend that you take a look at the start of studies page of the social and educational sciences department. There you will find important information and dates regarding the start of your studies at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.