Tuesday, February 27, 2001

WILMINGTON, NC – The Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington received a four-year accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education Commission in Accreditation.

“After reviewing our BSW curriculum and program, the Council on Social Work, the sole accrediting agency for social work education programs in the U.S., has determined that our program meets their requirements to educate a person to perform as a generalist social work practitioner. We’re extremely pleased because this represents a major accomplishment and rewards the hard work of faculty, staff and students,” said Dr. P. Nelson Reid, chair of UNCW’s Department of Social Work. “Accreditation is essential for our students because professional licensing and certification are linked to graduation from an accredited program as is admission to a graduate program. It’s expected that accreditation will be retroactive to 1996.”

The BSW program started the accreditation process in 1996 while the program was part of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. Dr. John Nasuti was program director. Completing the rigorous accreditation process is important for all professional degree programs, said Reid. Key elements that helped in the process were an increasing demand in the undergraduate social work program and the creation of a separate department in 1998, he added.

In addition to the required coursework, students must complete a two-semester field placement in one of approximately 25 service agencies in the region. Qualified volunteer field instructors supervise students who apply concepts and knowledge learned from the classroom to the client population that the agency serves. Participating agencies include the New Hanover and Brunswick counties Departments of Social Services, Catholic Social Services, Coastal Adult Day Care, the Lower Cape Fear Hospice and numerous school systems and community-based organizations.

UNCW’s Social Work Department employs seven full-time and three part-time faculty members for approximately 130 students majoring in the field. The department is also in the early stages of planning a Master of Social Work program, Reid said.



For more information, contact Dr. Reid at 910/962-7341