Graduates from Master courses in social work/social pedagogics now have the chance to obtain a doctorate

The Universities of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf and Cologne, Niederrhein University, the Catholic University of NRW and Duisburg-Essen University recently signed a cooperation agreement to enable outstanding social work graduates to obtain a doctorate.

In his speech to mark the signing of the contract, Prof. Dr. Joachim Metzner, Rector of Cologne University of Applied Sciences, remarked: "This is a unique process of an exemplary nature", and thanked Duisburg-Essen University for the leading role it had assumed here. The cooperation agreement provides the opportunity to introduce cooperative research and doctorate structures in both forms of university.

A reliable framework has thereby been created for the first time for excellent Master graduates from university courses in social work/pedagogics to gain a doctorate at the university. "Alongside the teamwork on an individual basis in the past, an institutionalised level has now been created to give Master graduates from Düsseldorf UAS the chance to obtain a doctorate", is how Prof. Dr. Andreas Jahr, Prorector for research and development, praised the concept. He believed that a further step had been taken to encourage young academics at the University of Applied Sciences, at least in the field of social work. Prof. Jahr went on to say that "hopefully other faculties will soon follow this example".

It is furthermore planned to set up a graduate colleague whose doctorate programme will have a common alignment. The candidates for a doctorate will register at Duisburg-Essen University (DEU) on the basis of the existing doctorate regulations of the Faculty of Educational Sciences and will initially be under the wing of a DEU lecturer responsible for the discipline.

How can help be organised?

How can help be organised for people who can no longer manager their lives themselves? The Social Work course of studies is concerned with questions such as this. It imparts the knowledge needed to understand the situation these people are in and to help them get back on their own two feet, whether this be ill or poor people, the homeless or refugees. Apart from theories and methods of social work, the course contains teaching content from the fields of pedagogics, psychology, medicine, business, law and administrative science.

The science of social work first became established in the university system in West Germany in the 1960s. Students have since been primarily educated at universities of applied sciences without their own right to award doctorates. It has become essential to promote young academics in order to further expand the discipline. Rector Prof. Dr. Ulrich Radtke (DEU) explains: "If professors in social work need to be appointed today, the number of suitable candidates is normally fairly small because a doctorate in this field is still the exception, despite the increased number of doctorates awarded in recent years." According to the Dean, Prof. Dr. Horst Bossong (DEU), this stage in the education process is concerned with reflecting on the fundamentals of social work in practice and with the further development of the theoretical side of the discipline. The aim is to generate stimuli for the social state both in present and in future.

Further information: Prof. Horst Bossong, Tel. 0201/183-3544, horst.bossong@uni-due.de, http://biwi.uni-duisburg-essen.de/bossong