Skip to main content
Profile: Forming Society

Social Work (BA)

Drei Studierende im Gespräch
© AdobeStock/Anton

The bachelor's degree programme in social work at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam offers a very broad, academically sound and at the same time practice-oriented education, with which you can work in all areas of social work after graduation. During your studies, you can set and pursue your own focal points. In the integrated internship, the theoretical knowledge acquired is applied and reflected upon.

Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Type:
Full time
Course language:
German
English
Standard study period:
6 semesters, incl. at least 20 weeks of integrated internship
Start of study:
Winter semester
Application deadline:
15/05 – 15/07 (restricted admission)
Admission requirements:
General university entrance qualification/ technical college entrance qualification/ equivalently recognised prior vocational training (BbgHG)
Credits:
180 ECTS credits
Module Manuals & Regulations
Profile

Social work as a pillar of society

Our society is a complex web of social relationships and processes. Individuals, groups, organisations or entire districts face different challenges and difficulties in the process of coping with life. Social work identifies, examines and addresses the social challenges and problems and develops solutions, arrangements and agreements together with a large number of actors involved.

The focus is always on sensitising society to perceive injustice and disadvantage. With the degree in social work, you gain the qualification to realise and reflect on such help processes and to form communities. In doing so, you will acquire research, preventive, intervening and aftercare working methods. The fields of social work are complex and varied.

Research & Practice

In the social work degree programme, you formulate your special and specific epistemological interest in certain phenomena of social work in the corresponding fields of action. From this, explicit research questions are generated, which you then work on with the support of teachers and tutors. For this purpose, there are various teaching and learning formats in our department that stimulate and support the research processes. The basics of scientific work are integrated, as is of course the acquisition of specialist knowledge on the individual work-research springs. The integrated internship is flanked by the university day. Here you will receive training supervision, attend methodological seminars relevant to the internship and be coached in a project support seminar in the implementation of an independent project.

The social work programme at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam ensures a reflective transfer of theory to practice by teaching you how to apply your scientific knowledge in practice and how to scientifically process questions from practice.

Is this degree programme right for me?

Social work is intensive work with people, groups and institutions. It requires a high level of reflection to be able to grasp and assess one's own abilities and approaches. A pronounced ability to communicate and empathise are basically good prerequisites. You should also have the ability to assess the balance between distance and closeness. If you also have a basic interest in scientific work and want to devote yourself to social, legal and business management issues, you have all the important prerequisites for studying social work.

You should bring these personal qualities with you

  • Desire to support people so that they can help themselves
  • Strong communication and empathy skills and patience

  • Ability to cope with tension

  • Finding a balance between distance and closeness

  • Interest in legal as well as business management and organisational issues

  • Openness to perceive social developments

Online Study Choice Assistant

Would you like to find out more about the social work degree programme, get opinions and tips from students and lecturers or take a look at typical study tasks?

With the Online Study Choice Assistant (OSA), you can test whether the degree programme is right for you.

OSA

Contact

The colleagues at the student counselling service provide information to prospective students, first-year students, parents, teachers and students on all general questions about the degree programme. If you have specific questions or concerns about the bachelor's degree programme in social work, please contact the subject counselling service.

Subject Counselling Service

Matthias Schreckenbach

Dipl.-Soz.Arb. Dipl.-Soz.päd. Matthias Schreckenbach, M. A.

Akademischer Mitarbeiter für Theorie und Praxis sozialer Arbeit, Familie/Jugend und Studiengangentwicklung Sozialmanagement (M. A.), Lehrplanung

These degree programmes might also interest you

More courses
Degree programme Teaching language Start of study Application deadline
Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MA) English Winter semester
01.02. – 31.05. (free of admission)
Early Childhood Education (BA) German Winter semester
15.05. – 15.07. (admission restricted)
Early Childhood Studies (MA) German Winter semester
15/06 – 15/10 (free of admission)
MA Social Work with a Focus on the Family German Winter semester
15.05. – 22.06. (NC degree program)
Social Management (MA) German Summer semester
15/12 – 17/03 (free of admission)
Social Work (BA) German, English Winter semester
15/05 – 15/07 (restricted admission)
Social Work | Dual-Digital (BA) German Winter semester
15/06 – 15/09 (free of admission)
Social Work | Part-time Distance Learning Study Programme (BA) German Summer semester
15/12 –15/01 (admission restricted)
Career Prospects

Career prospects

The approximately 105 different fields of work in social work range from counselling activities at aid institutions or accompaniment and support to coordinating and steering activities in the field of organising institutions and social agencies. In addition to imparting knowledge, the intensive transfer of practical theory in the social work degree programme forms the basis for your later, everyday work.

Possible areas of application

The generalist bachelor's degree programme in social work gives you access to various institutions and fields of work in social work, where you can work in an advisory and mediating capacity as well as in an accompanying capacity or work within coordination. These include, for example:

  • Youth, social and health care facilities
  • providers of educational and training work
  • Social counselling services
  • Social management
  • Resocialisation
  • And many more...
Personen halten ihre Hände übereinander

State recognition as social worker / social pedagogue

Graduates of our bachelor's degree programmes at the social and educational sciences department receive state recognition upon separate application.

The basis for state recognition is the Brandenburg social professions act. On the website of the Brandenburg State Office for Social Affairs and Supply you will find all the important information as well as the form for applying for state recognition and for the medical certificate. The leaflet of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the state of Brandenburg summarises the documents to be submitted.

Provincial regulations for social professions

These degree programmes might also interest you

More courses
Degree programme Teaching language Start of study Application deadline
Childhood Studies and Children's Rights (MA) English Winter semester
01.02. – 31.05. (free of admission)
Early Childhood Education (BA) German Winter semester
15.05. – 15.07. (admission restricted)
Early Childhood Studies (MA) German Winter semester
15/06 – 15/10 (free of admission)
MA Social Work with a Focus on the Family German Winter semester
15.05. – 22.06. (NC degree program)
Social Management (MA) German Summer semester
15/12 – 17/03 (free of admission)
Social Work (BA) German, English Winter semester
15/05 – 15/07 (restricted admission)
Social Work | Dual-Digital (BA) German Winter semester
15/06 – 15/09 (free of admission)
Social Work | Part-time Distance Learning Study Programme (BA) German Summer semester
15/12 –15/01 (admission restricted)
Study Content

Course of studies

The standard period of study for the bachelor of social work programme is six semesters and concludes with a bachelor of arts degree.

Semester 1 – 2 Compulsory modules
Semester 3 Compulsory modules, FleX module
Semester 4 Practical phase (internship or work placement abroad, accompanying courses)
Semester 5 Compulsory modules, FleX module, semester abroad possible
Semester 6 Research colloquium, Bachelor thesis

Study content

Knowledge transfer in the bachelor's degree programme in social work mainly takes place in lectures and seminars with a small group size. As the methodological focus of the study programme is based on the approaches of research-based learning, you will not only receive a theoretical education in social work, but also establish a direct link to practical application in practice modules and projects. In addition to classical lectures and seminars, the methodological focus in the degree programme is on reflective application. This ensures a transfer between theory and practice as well as between research and professional action.

In the currently valid module handbooks, study and examination regulations and statutes of the social and educational sciences department, you will find the module overview, a detailed description of the modules and study contents, the study plan as well as the statutes for conducting the selection procedure for the social work degree programme.

Teaching formats

  • Seminars, lectures, tutorials and self-organised, small study groups
  • Support from teachers (mentoring and counselling)
  • Research-based learning in projects (workshops and real labs) and public presentation of results
  • E-learning components
  • Study visits and work placements abroad through international cooperations
  • Interdisciplinary projects within the university (e.g. InterFlex)

Compulsory modules

  • Workshop
  • Social Work Science
  • Fields of Social Work
  • Methods of Social Work
  • Reference sciences
  • Law and Politics
  • Digital Media and Aesthetics
  • Social Research
  • Real Lab
  • Social economics

FleX module

  • Deepening depending on the area of interest for individual focal points

Internship

In the fourth semester, you will complete an 800-hour (approx. 20 weeks) integrated internship. This practical phase is supervised on one university day per month by training supervision, methodological seminars relevant to the internship and a project support seminar. The university day is compulsory.

Internships at the social and educational sciences department

International

The fifth semester of study lends itself to a stay abroad. It is also possible to complete the integrated compulsory internship as an internship abroad. You can find more details in the module handbook. We also offer many English-language seminars, e.g. through the international consortium VirCamp.

Thesis

During the last semester you will write your bachelor's thesis and will be accompanied in the process by a seminar on scientific work/research colloquium.

Projects from the department

More projects
Schematische Grafik eines Monitors, umgeben von Sprechblasen

Communicative Appropriation of Digital Sports

An explorative analysis of chat communication in eSports using the example of the Paris Major Blast 2023

SocialGestures – Gestures as Cultural Markers: The Importance of Tact Gestures for Social Preference and Learning in Childhoos and Early Childhood in France and Germany

SocialGestures is a joint research project of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam and the Université Grenoble Alpes. The project was developed jointly and is being carried out under joint responsibility. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (GR 4756/3-1).

JVA Heidering

Prison Architecture – Use of Space and Everyday Experience in a Berlin Prison

The research interest of the ethnographic study concerns the perception of prison architecture as well as the practices of space use and space appropriation by prisoners and staff in a Berlin correctional facility.

Eltern mit ihren Kleinkindern in einer Beratungssituation

Event Series "Elternwissen" with the Healthy Kids Network Potsdam

Events for parents with infants and toddlers aged 0 to 3 years with topics about parenting and child development in the first three years of life

Application & Contact

At a glance

The most important deadlines, dates and admission requirements for the bachelor's degree programme in social work are compiled here. You can find out which steps you need to take for a successful application in the next section.

Deadlines & Dates

  • by 15 July: register and submit an online application
  • by 15 July: apply for a higher semester to continue a degree programme you have started at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

Access requirements

  • General university entrance qualification according to the Brandenburg university act: General university entrance qualification or entrance qualification for studies at universities of applied sciences or previous vocational training recognised as equivalent

This is how you apply!

In the following, we explain to you which aspects you should pay attention to from the registration for the central allocation of study places to the matriculation (enrolment).

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.

Further information

The following links provide you, and especially international applicants, with further information on the topics of application and enrolment at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam.

Girlande mit internationalen Flaggen

International applicants

You would like to apply for studies from the first or a higher semester and have acquired your school-leaving qualification and/or university degree abroad? Then you can have degrees and achievements acquired abroad recognised and study with us.

Application information for internationals

Drei Studierende schauen sich Infomaterialien der FH Potsdam an

Application & Enrolment Procedure

The application and study service provides information and advice on general questions regarding the application process, admission and enrolment at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, application for a higher semester, but also on topics such as compensation for disadvantages, part-time studies, waiting semesters and hardship applications.

Application & Enrolment University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

Contact & Services

The student counselling service provides information and advice on general questions about studying as well as on topics such as choosing a degree programme, application, enrolment and study organisation.

For subject-specific questions on module content, credit transfer, examinations or specialisations in the social work degree programme, the subject counselling service is the right place to go.

Subject Counselling Service

Matthias Schreckenbach

Dipl.-Soz.Arb. Dipl.-Soz.päd. Matthias Schreckenbach, M. A.

Akademischer Mitarbeiter für Theorie und Praxis sozialer Arbeit, Familie/Jugend und Studiengangentwicklung Sozialmanagement (M. A.), Lehrplanung

Student Financing

Room 3.02a

Family Affairs Commissioner

Room 026

Office hours

Tue and Thu 9.30 am – 1.30 pm

Commissioner for University Employees with Impairment

Room 201

Office hours

by arrangement

Contact Persons Department of Student Affairs