Social Work in Higher Education

This text presents an analysis of the state of social work as a discipline in British higher education. Challenges to the continuation of the discipline are located in a discussion of the wider changes in higher education and in the personal social services, and also linked to debates about the nature of knowledge and about professional education. The substantive analysis is based on original data about the discipline and includes reference to pedagogical and cultural factors, and to internal and external policies which might make the discipline viable or vulnerable in the higher education context. The multi-disciplinary perspective reflects a characteristic of the discipline itself, which might be seen as either problematic or a strength. The book concludes that, while the future scale and form of the social work subject area is partly outside the control of social work educators, they have a key role to play in the development of the discipline and of related research, which should underpin the creation of knowledge and inform professional practice in the changing field of personal social services.