In a nutshell
This online Master of Social Work (Professional Qualifying) course is designed to produce highly skilled graduates who are committed to advancing social justice and upholding human rights.
Offered by Charles Sturt University, and accredited by the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), this course is the ideal qualification for professionals looking to make a career segue into social work.
The course comprehensively covers a range of fundamentals and will equip you with both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to work across a range of social work contexts. With a broad array of electives on offer you will also be able to pursue areas of interest or fill gaps in your knowledge.
Electives range from gerontology, mental health and child welfare through to loss and grief, and palliative care. The course includes 1000 hours of mandatory workplace learning, giving you the opportunity to put your theoretical education into practice.
If you’re passionate about upholding social justice and advocating for vulnerable populations, this course is the perfect one-stop-shop for all your training and qualification needs!
What you’ll need
To be eligible to apply for this course, applicants must have successfully completed a recognised degree or equivalent, and have completed a subject in each of the following areas:
- Human development or life span psychology
- Sociology, anthropology or social theory
- Australian government and politics, welfare politics, social policy, economics, or social history
- Research or research methods
Subjects that are not satisfied in these prerequisites must be completed prior to graduation as either single-session subjects or as part of the Graduate Certificate in Human Services.
Subject summary
In this social work course, some of the subjects you will study include:
Core units:
- Social work and human rights
- Social work theory and practice 1 – foundations of practice
- Social work theory and practice 2 – micro practice
- Social work theory and practice 3 – mezzo level
- Social work theory and practice 4 – macro practice and professional identity
- Social work field education 1
- Social work field education 2
- Social work fields of practice 1
- Social work fields of practice 2 – mandated practice
- Law for the human services
- Social work and social policy practice
- Ethics and social work practice
- Social work research
Restricted elective units:
- Constructions of adolescence and their educational implications
- Ethics and social welfare
- Vulnerability and the ethics of intervention
- Ageing bodies, ageing minds
- Ageing and professional practice
- Issues in dementia care and communication
- Contemporary issues in gerontology
- Social work practice in mental health
- Understanding children from adversity
- Practice leadership in the human services
- Leading service development
- Ageing, policy and social construction
- Human resource management
- Legal issues in child and adolescent welfare
- Management theory and practice
- Public sector management
- Law, ethics and human rights
- Rural populations and places
- Social planning and evaluation
- Advanced group work
- International social development
- Child and adolescent welfare in Aboriginal communities
- Grief and loss
- Case management
- Working in child protection
- Loss grief and palliative care
Why Charles Sturt University?

One of the first universities to adopt distance education study, Charles Sturt University (CSU) is Australia's leading university in online education and continues to strive for innovation and excellence in higher learning. With a track record in graduate employment and strong industry contacts, CSU offers relevant training and workplace skills at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level. CSU specialises in a range of industries such as agriculture, viticulture, education, librarianship, allied health and criminology.
Charles Sturt has 16 campuses in the eastern states of Australia. All CSU students can attend any campus for support and to use available facilities. Campus locations include: Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Port Macquarie, Wagga Wagga.
CSU offers a range of student support services, academic learning support and skills development for all its distance education students. Studying with CSU, you will have access to your online subjects, Student Services, the CSU Library, forums and your exam results through student.csu, a personalised online portal.
You will also have entry into CSU Interact, a scholarly environment that connects students and staff online. Each subject you’re enrolled in will have its own subject site housed within CSU Interact, giving you access to learning content, tools and subject forums.