| Code | Faculty | Department |
|---|---|---|
| 01130144 | Faculty of Humanities | Department: Social Work and Criminology |
| Credits | Duration | NQF level |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum duration of study: 4 years | Total credits: 523 | NQF level: 08 |
The purpose of this integrated programme is to provide qualifiers with professional training for a career in social work. The theoretical training goes hand in hand with appropriate practical skills training.
A police clearance certificate (PCC) is required to study social work. In accordance with the Children’s Act (2005), all registered student social workers have to complete Form 30 in Part B of the National Child Protection Register (NCPR).
Important information for all prospective students for 2025
The admission requirements below apply to all who apply for admission to the University of Pretoria with a National Senior Certificate (NSC) and Independent Examination Board (IEB) qualifications. Click here for this Faculty Brochure.
Minimum requirements | ||
Achievement level | ||
English Home Language or English First Additional Language | APS (Grade 11) | APS (NSC/IEB completed) |
5 | 30 | 28 |
* To retain admission, candidates must obtain an APS of at least 28 in the NSC/IEB.
* A police clearance certificate (PCC) is required to study social work. In terms of the Children’s Act (2005), all registered student social workers have to complete Form 30 in Part B of the National Child Protection Register (NCPR).
Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.
Applicants currently in Grade 12 must apply with their final Grade 11 (or equivalent) results.
Applicants who have completed Grade 12 must apply with their final NSC or equivalent qualification results.
Please note that meeting the minimum academic requirements does not guarantee admission.
Successful candidates will be notified once admitted or conditionally admitted.
Unsuccessful candidates will be notified after 30 June.
Applicants should check their application status regularly on the UP Student Portal at click here.
Applicants with qualifications other than the abovementioned should refer to the International undergraduate prospectus 2025: Applicants with a school leaving certificate not issued by Umalusi (South Africa), available at click here.
International students: Click here.
Transferring students
A transferring student is a student who, at the time of applying at the University of Pretoria (UP) is/was a registered student at another tertiary institution. A transferring student will be considered for admission based on NSC or equivalent qualification and previous academic performance. Students who have been dismissed from other institutions due to poor academic performance will not be considered for admission to UP.
Closing dates: Same as above.
Returning students
A returning student is a student who, at the time of application for a degree programme is/was a registered student at UP, and wants to transfer to another degree at UP. A returning student will be considered for admission based on NSC or equivalent qualification and previous academic performance.
Note:
Closing date for applications from returning students
Unless capacity allows for an extension of the closing date, applications from returning students must be submitted before the end of August via your UP Student Centre.
A student has to obtain a grade point average (GPA) of at least 75% (not rounded) for the final-year modules in the BSW programme (i.e., MWT 452, MWT 454, MWT 455 and MWP 400) in order to pass the degree with distinction.
Minimum credits: 122
Core modules-special note
Select either APL 110 and APL 120 or Soc 110 and 120
Module content:
Find, evaluate, process, manage and present information resources for academic purposes using appropriate technology.
Module content:
Apply effective search strategies in different technological environments. Demonstrate the ethical and fair use of information resources. Integrate 21st-century communications into the management of academic information.
Module content:
This module intends to equip students to cope more confidently and competently with the reading and understanding of a variety of texts, to apply these skills in a variety of contexts and to follow the conventions of academic writing.
Module content:
This module equips students to understand and use a range of discipline-specific terminology; apply the strategies of critical and comprehensive reading to their own academic literacy; apply the conventions of academic writing to their own writing, using the process approach, to produce intelligible academic texts and use the correct referencing technique as required by the faculty.
Module content:
This module is intended to equip students with a thorough knowledge of English grammar and is particularly useful for those interested in a career in teaching, editing, document design or other forms of language practice.
Module content:
*For absolute beginners only.
The acquisition of basic Sepedi communicative skills with emphasis on everyday expressions and suitable high frequency vocabulary, within specific social situations.
Module content:
*For absolute beginners only
The acquisition of basic isiZulu communicative skills with emphasis on everyday expressions and suitable high frequency vocabulary, within specific situations.
Module content:
This introduction to social anthropology introduces basic themes of the discipline including ritual, religion, marriage and sex. It combines classic studies with recent scholarship, and asks the ‘big question’ about human society and human cultures that offer challenging perspectives on the world we live in.
Module content:
This module builds on the ethnographic and theoretical themes introduced in APL 110, asking particular questions about how we may think about the relationship between the local and the global; indigenous and universal; public and private; the real and the possible.The module continues in the vein of APL 110, in that it explicitly encourages students to understand the society in which they live through a series of critical anthropological perspectives.
Module content:
Part 1: Fundamental criminology
A general introduction to criminology is provided. An overview of factors that contribute to crime, forensic criminology and forensic criminalistics are investigated.
Part 2: Violent crime
Various types of violent crimes receive attention in this section.
Module content:
Part 1: Penology
Attention is given to the roleplayers in the criminal justice system, namely the police, judiciary and corrections.
Part 2: Crime prevention and control
The nature and extent of crime, theories to explain criminal behaviour and crime prevention and control are investigated.
The two sections will not necessarily be presented in chronological order.
Module content:
*Closed – requires departmental selection
Introduction to social work and ethics in social work in practice.
Module content:
Introduction to Social Work
Introduction of social work as discipline and profession. Overview of social work history, principles and values, methods, specialised fields and social work functions and roles.
Module content:
Ethics in social work
Ethical standards and practice in social work. Social work values and ethics.
Module content:
This module is a general orientation to Psychology. An introduction is given to various theoretical approaches in Psychology, and the development of Psychology as a science is discussed. Selected themes from everyday life are explored and integrated with psychological principles. This module focuses on major personality theories. An introduction is given to various paradigmatic approaches in Psychology.
Module content:
This module introduces the student to a basic knowledge and understanding of the biological basis of human behaviour. The module addresses the key concepts and terminology related to the biological subsystem, the rules and principles guiding biological psychology, and identification of the interrelatedness of different biological systems and subsystems. In this module various cognitive processes are studied, including perception, memory, thinking, intelligence and creativity. Illustrations are given of various thinking processes, such as problem solving, critical, analytic and integrative thinking.
Module content:
Invitation to Sociology
How do we understand ourselves as individuals in relation to society? How are our individual life courses and large-scale processes of social and historical change related to each other? How have our societies come to be what they are today? And how can we think of our private troubles as public issues? These questions are at the very heart of sociology as a distinctive way of thinking about and understanding the social worlds that we inhabit. This module invites students to become familiar with sociological ways of thinking about current issues and personal experiences (particularly in the southern African context), and to develop the analytical skills that are necessary in order to ask and answer critical questions about the communities, society, and world that they live in. The module will include a specific emphasis on academic reading skills.
Module content:
Thinking sociologically
Drawing from the idea of Sociology as a discipline that focuses on critical thinking, the module will introduce students to ways of questioning the obvious and the taken-for-granted. In particular, power and inequality will be problematised, with a focus on how power operates to structure racial, class and gender inequalities across institutions, ideologies and identities. The module will introduce students to the operations of power as manifested in the production of institutions, the proliferation of identities and heightened contestations among ideologies. The module will include a specific emphasis on writing skills.
Minimum credits: 156
Core modules- special note
-If Criminology is selected up to third-year level, students also have to select SLK 210 and SOC 220 or APL 210.
-If Psychology is selected up to third-year level, students also have to select KRM 220 and SOC 220 or APL 210.
-If Sociology is selected up to third-year level, students also have to select KRM 220 and SLK 210 .
-If Anthropology is selected up to third-year level, students also have to select KRM 220 and SLK 210.
Elective modules- special note:
Select one of the following: KRM 210 (20) or SLK 220 (20) or SOC 210 (20) or APL 220 (20).
Module content:
Cultural constructions of sex and sexuality are the primary building blocks of social organisation. Anthropological discussions of sexuality tend to revolve around the various aspects of social organisation, such as the lifecycle, gendered identities, and personhood. These discussions are informed by the cultural meanings we impute to differences in biological sex and reproduction, and the ways in which these meanings influence social organisation, personhood, and power. In this module, we will consider cultural constructions of sex and sexuality as these inform certain aspects of social organisation such as kinship and marriage. We will attempt to develop an anthropological perspective on the interplay between sex, culture and society. To this end, we will examine the physiology of sexuality, and then consider different theoretical perspectives on human sexuality as reflected in cross-cultural ethnographic case studies.
Module content:
Part 1: Victimology
Contemporary issues in victimology are explored and special attention is given to aspects such as victim-based legislation and restorative justice.
Part 2: Political offences
Political offences such as corruption, assassination and human rights violations are investigated in this section.
The two sections will not necessarily be presented in chronological order.
Module content:
*Closed – requires departmental selection
Work-integrated learning in group and community work in various social work practice contexts.
Module content:
*Closed – requires departmental selection
Part 1: Community work
Community work as social work method in social work.
Part 2: Group work
Group work as social work method in social work.
Module content:
The entrepreneurial mind-set; managers and managing; values, attitudes, emotions, and culture: the manager as a person; ethics and social responsibility; decision making; leadership and responsible leadership; effective groups and teams; managing organizational structure and culture inclusive of the different functions of a generic organisation and how they interact (marketing; finance; operations; human resources and general management); contextualising Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in each of the topics.
Module content:
Value chain management: functional strategies for competitive advantage; human resource management; managing diverse employees in a multicultural environment; motivation and performance; using advanced information technology to increase performance; production and operations management; financial management; corporate entrepreneurship.
Module content:
In this module human development from conception through adolescence to adulthood is discussed with reference to various psychological theories. Incorporated are the developmental changes related to cognitive, physical, emotional and social functioning of the individual and the context of work in adulthood. Traditional and contemporary theories of human development explaining and describing these stages are studied in order to address the key issues related to both childhood and adulthood.
Module content:
Culture and religion in the construction of identities: Gender, sexuality and race
The global proliferation of identities is explored through the lens of social categories of difference. The convergence of ideologies and institutions in the construction of identities at the intersections of gender, sexuality and race is examined with a particular emphasis on modern African identities, drawing on the sub-disciplines of the sociology of religion and cultural sociology.
Module content:
This module is designed to introduce students to some of the legal aspects of particular importance to social workers. The module includes the following components: An introduction to law in general including an overview of the sources of law, the South African court system, the legal profession, legal aid and the procedural law; the law of persons, with specific reference to the commencement and termination of legal subjectivity and the legal status of a person; an introduction to the criminal law and punishment and the role of the social worker in the criminal process.
Module content:
This module is a continuation of the first module in social welfare law which aims to familiarise students with certain aspects of the law of particular importance to social workers. The module consists of the following components: an introduction to the matrimonial law, the matrimonial property law and the divorce law; parental authority including aspects such as the acquisition, nature, content and interference with parental authority; the role of the social worker in the family law context.
Module content:
Power and wealth
This module explores anthropological perspectives on politics, power and wealth in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Key concepts that are discussed include anthropological approaches to citizenship, cosmopolitanism, hegemony, human rights, neoliberalism, sovereignty, civil society, gender, race and class.
Module content:
Part 1: Forensic criminalistics
The integrated nature of systematic criminal investigation is explored by demarcating the study field into the criminal tactic and technique.
Part 2: Youth misbehaviour
The nature, extent, theoretical explanations as well as prevention and control of youth misbehaviour are investigated.
The two sections will not necessarily be presented in chronological order.
Module content:
This module is a social-psychological perspective on interpersonal and group processes. Themes that are covered include communication, pro-social behaviour, social influence and persuasion, political transformation, violence, and group behaviour.
Module content:
Industrial sociology
This module addresses sociological approaches to the workplace. Its focus is on theories of work and the current themes and debates within the sociology of work with an emphasis on exploring these issues from a southern perspective. Some of the themes that will be covered include the theorisation and conceptualisation of work, work in industrialising societies, workplace restructuring and reorganisation, flexibility in the labour market, changing technologies and the implications for work and employment, and new forms of work (including atypical work, service work, emotional labour, professional work).
Minimum credits: 125
Elective modules-special note
Select one of the following module pairs to the c redit value of 60: KRM 310 and KRM 320; or SOC 310 and SOC 321; or SLK 310 and SLK 320; or APL 310 and APL 320.
Module content:
Work-integrated learning with individuals and families in various social work practice contexts.
Module content:
*Closed – requires departmental selection
Part 1: Theories in social work
Relevant theories in social work.
Part 2: Casework
Casework as social work method.
Module content:
Part 1: Specialised fields in social work
Social work in health care.
Part 2: Specialised fields in social work
Addiction and gerontology.
Module content:
This module considers the colonial histories of anthropology in Africa and their impact on traditions of knowledge production in the discipline to propose a decolonised anthropology. It does so by critically reflecting on old and contemporary ethnographies from and about the African continent and pays particular attention to ethnographic methods, politics of representation, reflexivity, power and identity as pertinent questions to establish a decolonised anthropology. Students in this module are encouraged to imagine a decolonised anthropology in and for Africa.
Module content:
Fieldwork, ethnography and theory
This module reviews themes such as conducting fieldwork, writing ethnography and developing theory in anthropology. The module allows the opportunity to gain experience with ethnographic field methods in order to develop insight into the implications of methodological choices and their relationship to research questions and settings.
Module content:
Part 1: Theories of crime
Theories focusing on understanding and explaining crime and criminality are investigated in this section.
Part 2: Psychocriminology
Explaining the relation between abnormal behaviour and criminality receives attention in this section.
The two sections will not necessarily be presented in chronological order.
Module content:
Part 1: Female crime
The historical exclusion of women in Criminology theory development and research is interrogated through an epistemological lens. Gender and racial disparity in the criminal justice system are placed firmly on the agenda.
Part 2: Contemporary criminology issues
In this section contemporary crime manifestations are examined.
The two sections will not necessarily be presented in chronological order.
Module content:
Identification of abnormal behaviour in children based on knowledge of normal childhood development; introduction to the study of various models pertaining to abnormal behaviour; understanding and application of basic concepts in child psychopathology. This module also provides an introduction to psychopathology and symptomatology of adult abnormal behaviour. Terminology, definitions of abnormal behaviour, problems in diagnosis, labelling, and myths regarding abnormal behaviour are discussed. Neurosis as a specific mental disorder is studied critically from a multidimensional perspective, including intrapsychic, interpersonal and social-cultural explanations.
Module content:
This module deals with a community psychological perspective on human behaviour and psychological interventions and also critically explores the contribution of various perspectives in psychology. The module focuses on themes such as definitions of key concepts, principles and aims of community psychology, and the role of the community psychologist as well as the impact of earlier thought frameworks on contemporary perspectives. The implications of these ideas for practical initiatives focused on mental health in communities, are discussed. The module further focuses on critical psychology. Critical psychology is an orientation towards psychology that is critical towards the assumptions and practices of psychology as it is practiced in the mainstream. It attempts to address power issues as they manifest in the practice of mainstream psychology. The focus is on examining how the practice and theories of mainstream psychology contribute to these power issues impacting on marginalised groups.
Module content:
Structure, agency and power in social theory
How do we theorise the interrelationships between structure, agency, and power in society? This is the central question in this module, which provides students with an intensive introduction to critical social theories. Engaging with current affairs and debates in society, the module will enable students to learn how to develop theoretical knowledge about the ways in which power is structured and exercised in society – both from above and below, as well as across fields (the economic, the political, the cultural) and scales (the body, private and public spheres, communities and nation-states, and the world-system).
Module content:
Thinking methodologically
This module sets out to introduce students to ‘doing research’. In this respect the assumptions and processes underpinning methodological choices in sociological research are considered in order to think about foundations of research, about how knowledge claims are made, how science is conceptualised, what role theory plays, as well as how values and ethics shape the politics of research. In addition to these foundational questions, a broad introduction to methods used in social research is provided by considering both the theoretical dimensions and practical application of various research tools. The purpose of the module is to equip students with the necessary competence to, describe ontological and epistemological debates and different approaches to research in the social sciences, delineate a research problem, identify units of analysis, make sampling decisions and formulate questions and hypothesis as well as understand the principles of quantitative (elementary statistical decision-making) and qualitative data analysis.
Minimum credits: 120
Module content:
*Closed – requires departmental selection
Work-integrated learning and professional development in various social work practice contexts.
Module content:
Research concepts, research ethics, types of research, research designs, research processes and research methods as applicable to social work. Independent research which results in a research report.
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