ABOUT US

The Department of Social Work was established in 2020 at Munzur University, Faculty of Health Sciences. It began its education and training activities in the 2020-2021 academic year with 40 students. As of the 2022-2023 Academic Year, the Department of Social Work continues to provide education with 150 students and four classes.

The undergraduate program, taught in Turkish, has a duration of four years. Students enrolled in our Social Work Department receive theoretical training based on the knowledge, skills, and values of social work during the first three years. In the fourth year, they complete their practical training by applying the knowledge, skills, and values that form the three pillars of social work through practical courses.

As part of their practical courses, they gain experience by carrying out micro, mezzo, and macro dimensions of social work interventions at the Ministry of Family and Social Services, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Social Assistance and Solidarity Foundations, and national and international non-governmental organizations.

As a department, our main goal is to train social workers who will touch people in the most appropriate way, based on a social service education that is knowledge, value, and skill-loaded, interwoven with a mission of human rights and social justice, and scientifically grounded. For this reason, our department supports the teaching process with scientific activities outside the university and communicates with social work departments at different universities both domestically and internationally to provide students with a globally oriented education.

"Social work is a practice-based profession and academic discipline that facilitates social change and development, social integration, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Social justice, human rights, shared responsibility, and respect for diversity form the basis of social work. Grounded in the theories of the social sciences and humanities and in local knowledge, social work brings people and structures together to address life's difficulties and promote well-being." (IFSW, 2014).

As can be understood from the internationally accepted definition of the profession, social work is an applied academic discipline woven from knowledge, skills, and values centered on human rights and social justice. The uniqueness of social work stems from its multi-level perspective at the individual, group, and community levels in addressing existing inequalities within society and its value-laden nature. Guided by these values and scientific paradigms, Munzur University's Department of Social Work operates under the slogan “pioneering in science, free in thought.” It possesses a promising and prominent identity among newly established Social Work Departments in Turkey, leveraging the advantages of being located at a developing university and in a similarly developing region.

Our Mission

Our mission is to produce and implement knowledge and service methods aimed at ensuring social welfare, based on contemporary education methods and science, taking into account current changes and transformations in the social structure, and addressing new social conditions and problems, while observing and relying on social justice, equality, and human rights.

Our Vision

In line with the universal standards set forth by contemporary and scientific social work education, our vision is to be a scientific board that trains professionals to produce professional interventions for individuals and communities who have been disadvantaged as a result of changes in social life, provides education at a level appropriate to universal social work education, and conducts research and scientific publications.