BACHELOR OF SOCIAL WORK
Social Work is a challenging and rewarding profession with the primary goal of helping individuals, families, small groups,
organizations, and communities develop knowledge, values, and skills to help themselves to a better quality of life. The
purpose of the profession social work education is to enable students to integrate the knowledge, values, and skills of the
social work profession into competent practice. Fully accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, the Social Work
program at UTEP prepares students for beginning professionally supervised practice.
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2.- Mission of the Social Work Program at UTEP
The mission of the Social Work Program is derived from UTEP’s own statement of purpose, the standards of accreditation of
the Council on Social Work Education and the region served by the University. More specifically, the Social Work Program at
UTEP has as its primary mission the training of culturally competent generalist social work practitioners capable of
providing an array of social services to the unique bicultural, bi-national populations living within the service areas
identified by the University.
More specifically, the program seeks to achieve its mission through the fulfillment of the following goals:
- The preparation of students for beginning generalist professional social work practice with individuals, families, groups, communities, and organizations from
an ethnocultural perspective.
- The preparation of beginning generalist social workers with cultural competence for practice with the bi-national, multi-cultural populations of the El
Paso/Juárez border region with particular emphasis on Hispanics, Mexican Americans, and persons of Mexican descent.
- The preparation of students for graduate education in social work.
- The preparation of students/graduates to meet the person power needs of social service agencies in Southwest Texas, El Paso, and Ciudad Juárez,
Mexico.
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3.- Bachelor of Social Work Degree
Professional social work advisement allows for early and periodic evaluation of each student’s performance and guides
students in selecting areas of coursework. Professional academic advising is therefore essential for all students
(pre-professional, transfer, and admitted) to ensure that coursework complies with the current BSW degree plan.
Professional academic advising for social work and pre-social work majors may be done only by UTEP social work faculty.
The BSW degree plan is designed to assure coverage of CSWE accreditation mandated curriculum content. This degree plan is
based on the building block analogy of Social Work education. The freshman year is considered the Liberal Arts year. The
sophomore year is the pre- professional year. The junior year is the foundation professional year. The senior year is the
advanced professional year. Students shall be considered a pre-professional if they have completed at least 30 hours in the
Liberal Arts core curriculum and have officially declared Social Work as their major
Social work classes are sequentially offered and include content on values, ethics, diversity, social and economic justice,
populations at risk, human behavior and the social environment, social welfare policy and services, social work practice,
research, and field practicum.
The Social Work program places a strong value on community involvement and students begin early (SOWK 3210: Introduction to
Social Work and Social Welfare) in their course of study to gain practical experience through volunteer hours in approved
agencies. In the foundation professional (junior) year, a pre-internship experience of 60 hours is incorporated into the
Practice I (SOWK 3355) course.
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4.- BSW Admissions Policy
All students who wish to graduate from the BSW Degree Program at the University of Texas at El Paso must apply for a
separate admission into the Program and gain either clear or conditional acceptance. This acceptance is granted through the
Social Work Program office. Only students who have been admitted into the BSW Degree Program and have completed all degree
plan requirements in both the liberal arts core and the social work major will be recommended for graduation with a BSW
degree.
All UTEP students who completed coursework before the program was accredited in June 1995 and transfer students should
review the Policy on Certification of Coursework to ensure that social work courses comply with the requirements of the
current BSW degree plan.
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5.- Admissions Criteria:
- UTEP Students
- Completion of the liberal arts core.
The following is the list of UTEP numbered courses
from which the 56 hours will be counted:
- English Composition (6 hours):
ENGL 3111 and
ENGL 3112
- History (6 hours):
HIST 3101 and
HIST 3102
- Political Science (6 hours):
POLS 3210 and
POLS 3211
- Language (6 hours): Spanish recommended
(placement exam)
- Humanities (3 hours):
PHIL 3103
recommended
- Mathematics (3 hours):
MATH 3120 (placement
exam) and a statistics course (no
recommendation)
- Science (8 hours): University Core Natural
Science Sequence 3 or Sequence 4
- Social Science (6 hours):
PSYC 3101 and
SOCI 3101
- Economics (3 hours)(no recommendation)
- Fine Arts (3 hours)(no recommendation)
- Cultural Diversity (3 hours) (See Social Work
Advisor for recommendation.)
- Completion of social work prerequisite courses.
- An overall grade point average of 2.5 at the time
of application.
- Approval of the Admissions Committee.
- Transfer students
- Transfer coursework from community college (2 yr. Program)
- A maximum of 66 semester hours is transferable
to a UTEP degree program from a two-year institution.
- Students may satisfy up to 18 semester hours
of the 66 semester hours from community
college from the following:
1) An introduction to social work or human
services course (3 hours)
2) A computer course (3 hours)
3) A course in human behavior in the social environment (3 hours)
4) A course in social policy (3 hours)
5) Six academic hours in lower division
elective courses in human services. (6 hours)
- Students must have a UTEP grade point average
of 2.5 at the time of application.
- Students must have approval of the Admissions
Committee.
- Transfer coursework from a four-year university CSWE accredited BSW program:
- Student may transfer up to 30 semester hours
from a CSWE accredited BSW degree program
from the following:
1) An introduction to social work course (three hours)
2) Up to six hours of social policy
3) Up to six hours of HBSE
4) Up to nine hours of practice and/or field
courses
5) Up to six hours of research courses
- Students must have an overall grade point
average of 2.5 at the time of application.
- Students must have approval of the Admissions
Committee.
Students must complete at least 25% of the semester hours needed for graduation (a minimum of 32 hours) in residence.
Students must complete 24 of the last 30 semester hours needed for graduation hours in residence.
Students must complete 12 advanced hours in their major in residence within 3 years of graduation.
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6.- BSW Admissions Application Process:
- A. Admissions Application: All students who wish to apply
for the BSW Degree Program must complete an admissions
application available from the Social Work Program
office. A completed application includes:
- Completed application form
- Copy of official transcripts
- Two letters of professional reference
- Completed Transfer Credit Evaluation form, if applicable.
- Applications Reviews: Application deadlines are December
1st and May 1st of each academic year. Admissions
applications are individually reviewed by the BSW
Admissions Committee during the months of December and
May of each year. Students are notified of faculty
decisions by mail.
- Admissions Decisions: The following decisions are made
on admissions application folders by the Admissions
Committee:
- Clear admission: application is accepted with no
problems.
- Conditional admission: application is accepted with
a grade point average condition. In order to remain
in the BSW degree program following conditional
admission, students are required to post a 2.5 GPA
in coursework the succeeding semester. Students who
post less than a 2.5 GPA in the succeeding semester
following conditional admission will not be allowed
to enroll in social work practice courses. Pending
status: application decision is delayed pending the
completion of the admissions application.
- Denied admission: application is not accepted.
Students denied admission should see their advisor
and may reapply the following admissions cycle.
A designation other than clear admission requires a meeting of the student with the faculty advisor. The purpose of the meeting is to design a plan to address any
outstanding concerns in the file.
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7.- Field Instruction
During their professional (senior) year, students complete their field practicum, working 16 hours per week in an approved
social service or health care agency under the supervision of a degreed social worker. Students are required to make formal
application for the field practicum by contacting the Coordinator of Field Practicum in the academic semester preceding
their placement.
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8.- Admission to Field Instruction
All BSW students must complete a supervised field instruction sequence. In order to be considered eligible for field
instruction, students must meet the following criteria:
- Have a 2.0 or better cumulative grade point average on a
4.0 scale in the Liberal Arts foundation.
- Have a 2.5 or better cumulative grade point average for
all courses completed in Social Work by the end of the
second semester of the foundation professional year of
study.
- Completed SOWK 3210, 3231, 3270, 3220, 3341, 3320, 3355,
and 3330 with a "C" or better final letter grade in each of these courses.
Upon completion of the program and all requirements for graduation, the student is eligible to test for licensure from the
Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners as a Licensed Social Worker (LSW).
