MASTER IN
Social Work
The Master in Social Work (MSW) is a professional graduate degree that prepares social work and development practitioners to lead, innovate and transform social welfare practice across direct service, policy, administration, humanitarian action, child protection, business, and financial systems.
Grounded in social justice, ethical inquiry, collaboration, and social innovation and Miriam College’s core values and advocacies, the program builds the competence of graduates in navigating complex realities and co-designing transformative solutions toward a more just, inclusive, and sustainable future.
The curriculum is ladderized. Students who complete 21 graduate units of coursework may earn a Graduate Diploma in Social Work within one year. They may subsequently proceed to the MSW degree by completing the additional required coursework, a three-unit Project Innovation Lab, a three-unit Capstone Project, and a comprehensive examination. Miriam Spirituality and Advocacy, a one-unit self-paced institutional course, is required for MSW students, except Miriam College graduates and employees who have worked for at least five years.
Program Outcomes
By the end of the program, graduates will be able to:
- PO1: Critical and Transformative Social Work Analysis
Apply critical and transformative social work perspectives, values, ethics, and human rights principles in analyzing and responding to complex social realities
- PO 2: Specialized Professional Competence
Demonstrate advanced competence in a chosen specialization track through context-responsive assessment, planning, intervention, management, advocacy, or systems strengthening
- PO 3: Evidence-Informed and Ethical Inquiry
Use practice-based inquiry, ethical data use, AI literacy, and evidence-informed reasoning to improve social work practice, policies, programs, organizations, and services
- PO 4: Stakeholder Collaboration and Strategic Communication
Engage diverse stakeholders through strategic communication, collaboration, facilitation, negotiation, and cross-sectoral partnership-building
- PO 5: Social Innovation and Transformative Leadership
Design innovative, inclusive, sustainable, and socially just solutions using design thinking, leadership, and social innovation approaches
- PO 6: Professional Knowledge Defense and Public Dissemination
Communicate and defend practice-based and professional knowledge through comprehensive examination, portfolio presentation, and public dissemination of capstone project outputs
Key Competencies Developed
By the end of the program, graduates are expected to demonstrate the following key competencies:
- Critical, transformative, rights-based, and ethical, reflexive social work practice
- Feminist, gender-responsive and transformative, multicultural, anti-oppressive, and climate-conscious analysis
- Practice-based inquiry, evidence-informed decision-making, and responsible use of AI and data
- Stakeholder collaboration, strategic communication, advocacy, and inter-agency coordination
- Specialization-based competence in policy/governance, advanced generalist practice, humanitarian action, business/financial contexts, or child protection and systems strengthening
- Design thinking, social innovation, program/project development and management
- Creative and transformative leadership for service, organizational, community, and systems change
- Capstone development, professional portfolio preparation, public presentation, and defense
These competencies can be assessed through a variety of methods, including:
- Reflexive journals
- Case analysis
- Specialization-based portfolio
- Policy briefs
- Practice protocols
- Stakeholder maps
- Communication plans
- Inquiry plans
- Design prototypes
- Leadership reflections
- Field exposure outputs
- Capstone project deliverables
- Comprehensive examination
- Public presentation
Total Program Units: 37 units
Standard Completion Time:Â 2 years
The following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are addressed by this program:
Potential Careers:
Graduates of this program may pursue the following career pathways:
- Social welfare policy analyst, planner, or program development officer
- Social welfare administrator, NGO manager, or social protection program leader
- Advanced generalist practitioner, case management supervisor, MHPSS practitioner, addiction recovery specialist
- Humanitarian, DRRM, climate justice, or community resilience practitioner
- Child protection specialist, child welfare systems strengthening officer, safeguarding lead, or technical adviser of local child protection councils
- CSR/ESG, workplace wellbeing, financial inclusion, employee assistance, or corporate foundation practitioner
- Social innovation, advocacy, research, training, and development consultant
- Graduate-level educator, project lead, or practice-based researcher in social work and social development
CURRICULUM SUMMARY
Courses | Units |
MC Required Course | 1 |
1.      Miriam Spirituality and Advocacy | |
Core Course | 3 |
1.      Transformative Social Work Practice | |
Professional Courses | 15 |
1.      Gender, Social Justice, and Multicultural Practice 2.      Practice-Based Inquiry in Social Work: AI, Ethics and Evidence 3.      Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration and Strategic Communication 4.      Creative and Transformative Leadership 5.      Design Thinking for Social Innovation | |
Specialization Track Courses | 6 |
Specialization tracks may be offered based on student demand, faculty availability, minimum class size, and institutional capacity. Students who complete the required six units or two courses within a single specialization track, together with the other requirements of the Graduate Diploma, may be awarded the corresponding specialized Graduate Diploma. Students who complete the general Graduate Diploma requirements but do not complete the required six units within a single specialization track may still earn the Graduate Diploma in Social Work, subject to applicable academic and institutional requirements.  Graduate Diploma in Social Work (Welfare Policy and Governance) This prepares professionals to analyze, develop, manage, and improve social welfare policies and systems through rights-based, evidence-informed, and accountable welfare governance. 1.      Policy Analysis and Development 2.      Management of Social Welfare Systems 3.      Public Finance, Budget Advocacy, and Resource Governance for Social Welfare Graduate Diploma in Social Work (Advanced Generalist Practice) This prepares practitioners for advanced social work practice across individuals, families, groups, communities, and service systems, with emphasis on case management, supervision, coaching and mentoring. 1.      Advanced Generalist Social Work Practice: Case Management 2.      Supervision, Coaching and Mentoring in Advanced Generalist Social Work Practice 3.      Mental Health, Psychosocial Support and Trauma-Informed Practice 4.      Addiction, Behavioral Health, and Recovery-Oriented Practice Graduate Diploma in Social Work (Humanitarian Action) This prepares professionals to respond to disasters, complex emergencies, displacement, climate-related risks, and humanitarian crises through ethical, coordinated, protection-oriented, and climate-justice-informed practices. 1.      Disaster Risk Governance, Humanitarian Systems and Standards 2.      Humanitarian Action in Complex Emergencies 3.      Green Social Work, Climate Justice and Community Resilience Graduate Diploma in Social Work (Business and Financial Contexts) This prepares professionals to apply social work perspectives in private sector, workplace, business, financial inclusion, CSR, ESG, employee wellbeing, and organizational settings. 1.      Social Work Practice in the Private Sector 2.      Financial Social Work, Inclusion, and Social Protection Graduate Diploma in Social Work (Child Protection and Systems Strengthening) This prepares professionals to protect children, strengthen families, and improve child welfare systems through rights-based child protection, family systems strengthening, safeguarding, case management, and inter-agency collaboration. 1.      Child Protection Policies and Local Governance in the Context of Social Welfare Delivery 2.      Child Welfare Systems Strengthening: Strategies, Methods and Approaches 3.      Case Management on Child Protection: Theory and Practice 4.      Data Management for Child Protection: Collecting, Processing and Use of Data 5.      Leading and Working with Diverse Stakeholders on Child Protection | |
Elective / Cognate Courses | 6 |
Elective/cognate courses may be selected from an approved pool of cross-specialization or interdisciplinary courses, or from courses offered by other programs during the semester. Selected track-specific courses may be cross-listed as electives for students from other tracks, provided that the course supports the student’s professional pathway and capstone direction. Elective offerings shall be scheduled on a rotating basis and may be delivered as mixed-track classes with differentiated outputs. | |
Project Innovation and Capstone Course | 6 |
·        Project Innovation Lab with International Field Exposure ·        Capstone Project | |
Comprehensive Examination | 0 |
Total Number of Units | 37 |
