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The main purpose of the Master's programme in Community Work is to make the students qualified to design and initiate processes and actions for social change together with those it concern, as well as the authorities, commercial interests and the voluntary sector.

Introduction:

Community work has its tenets in the social sciences, and departs from a conception of social structures as created and changed through human actions. Within community work people are seen as agentic, creative and competent actors who can improve their own possibilities for social participation. Through common efforts and collective action people can develop their own communities, whether based on geography, interests or organisations.

Community work is a planned process where one or more professionals assist an organisation, a special interest group, or a local society that wishes to utilise their own resources in order to solve self identified problems, and to reach self defined goals. Community work is the process of assisting people to improve their own communities by undertaking collective action. Community improvement ranges from grass root mobilisation to influencing human relations in workplace environments, or improvement of the co-operation between different local agencies and actors and the local society. Local and regional authorities and the private and voluntary sectors are important agencies and actors in community work.

The presumptions legitimating community work are based on a conception of societies as social structures, which are created, transformed and changed through human actions. This enables and creates possibilities for change, as well as it constrains individual and collective actions. The focus of this programme is on the conditions for individuals´ and groups' participation on normatively expected social arenas, on how the communities themselves may act in order to challenge or change these normative expectations, and on the conditions that constrain social participation or lead to social marginalisation.

The work process in community work is based on a democratic ideal of voluntariness, equity and partnership between those concerned and the professional(s). The aim is to develop and share knowledge necessary to promote social change and improve life circumstances and social participation. Individual and collective consciousness rising is salient in bringing into focus the structural and the societal impacts on life circumstances and social participation.

Theoretical and practical knowledge is drawn from social theory, social psychology and pedagogical subjects. Action theory is an integral part.

Summarised, community work

• is founded on the assumption that people concerned have knowledge and competence, the will and the ability to influence their surroundings and better their life circumstances
• assumes that everyone can develop further their skills and acquire new knowledge and competence.
• assumes that people concerned can themselves identify constraints to self-expression and social participation on commonly expected and accepted arenas
• that people can voice a vision for a better alternative
• is to locate agency, and to inquiry into conditions for social participation
• utilises and exploits collective action for social change using a democratic method based on human rights, ecological philosophy, and social change from the bottom to the top
• offers a context for developing community worker roles

Summarised, the community worker

• aims at influencing the conditions for social participation together with those concerned
• contributes to social mobilisation, maintenance or change of existing communities, or mobilises new communities
• contributes to the sharing of knowledge between all actors
• sees the catalyst function as his or her most important contribution
• as a catalyst should stimulate collective actions, by contributing to the analysis of the situation at hand, and the identification of possible aims and means

Goals/objectives

The Master's programme in community work:

• Offers an education on the master level that is tailored to suit students with vocational education (BA-degree) in pedagogical subjects, health subjects, and social subjects, police or correctional service subjects
• Offers and education on the master level to students with a non-vocational BA-degree, in the social sciences
• Educates reflective and knowledgeable professionals in community work with speciality in inquiring into and influencing the circumstances for social participation
• Educates reflective and knowledgeable professionals in community work with specialities in inquiring into prerequisites and circumstances for social mobilisation and collective actions
• Educates reflective and knowledgeable professionals with specialities in facilitating co-operation, coordination and the development and sharing of knowledge between the populace, the authorities and the private sector and the voluntary sector
• Develops contact and cooperation with public, voluntary and private actors and agencies
• Enhances research and brings forward the development of knowledge in community work
• Enhances research and brings forward the development of knowledge about the welfare state's services and organisation appropriating a user or recipient perspective
• Contributes to networking and cooperation between research groups and universities, both nationally and internationally

Learning outcome

When the requirements for the Master's degree is fulfilled, the students are able to

• analyse social and structural conditions for social participation
• design and initiate processes, projects and actions together with those concerned
• plan and carry out projects for change and development
• work in the public, private or voluntary sectors on local or central levels
• work across professional and departmental boundaries
• supervise and have responsibility for research and development within the public or the private sector
• affiliate to tuition and supervising in vocational education, further training and follow up studies apply for admission to PhD programmes in the social sciences

Methods

The pedagogical platform of the programme is based on an interrelationship between research, tuition, supervision, and local projects in the university college's or the students' local environment. The academic staff is engaged in activities and research; i.e. studies of childhood and adolescence, disability studies, juridification studies, social justice and poverty studies, studies of the correctional services, and studies of health and well-being in local communities. New areas of knowledge or subjects for research emerges when students and staff interact, and when students work on their Master's theses. New areas for research may also emerge through the students' work places, or through the university college's different partners in the work field. The students are continually updated on the academic staff´s ongoing research, research programmes and other relevant research activities. The different projects are discussed with the students in order to find opportunities for them to join ongoing projects or in other ways join the academic staff´s research projects.

The learning and teaching are predominantly interactional; dialogue-based seminars, presentation and discussion of scholarly texts, process-oriented writing and supervision, group work and individual activity. We are using portfolio assessment of compulsory subjects. Between the study-assemblies, students are working on group based or individual assignments, written assignments are commented upon by students and staff, and web-based supervision are provided. We are using the learning management system It's learning.

Target group

The Master's programme is interdisciplinary, and is built on 3 years of higher education (Bachelors degree or similar) within pedagogical subjects, correctional services subjects, and health subjects or social subjects. Applicants without a vocational BA-degree, must have a Bachelor's degree or similar including no less than 90 ECTS social sciences subjects (i.e. pedagogy, social science, criminology) in order to meet the entrance admission requirements.

Admission requirements and ranking criteria

Applicant groups

Applicants are divided into applicant groups according to their BA-education (health, pedagogy, social, vocational and correctional services/other). Student places are distributed in accordance with applicants within each group in order to secure the interdisciplinary dimension. Applicants within each applicant group compete with each other. Applicants are placed on waiting lists in accordance with their own applicant group.

The administrative board may decide that some student places are reserved for applicants outside of Norway.

Ranking criteria

If there are more qualified applicants than there are study places, the applicants are ranked on the following criteria:

The board can decide that up to 30% of the study places are reserved for applicants that are 30 years or younger.

The average grade of the courses that are part of the application for the Master's programme must be C or better.

For applicants that are given conditional entrance, cf section 6. Missing exams are not made part of the grade average.

For applicants with letter grades, the following conversion table is used for calculating the average grade: A=1, B=2, C=3, D=4, E=5. The grade "Passed" is C=3

Additional points of 1 point per relevant practical year after finished education that is part of the applicants academic foundation are given up to a maximum of 5 points. No additional points are given for vocational practice that is not part of the academic foundation.

Organisation

The Master's programme is comprised of 60 ECTS worth of compulsory subjects (MASA101: Contemporary social theory and philosophy of social science 30 ECTS, MASA200: Community work - theory and method 20 ECTS, and MASA301: Social science research methods 10 ECTS) and 60 ECTS in the form of a Master's thesis (MASA401: Master's Thesis - Theoretical specialisation 10 ECTS, MASA500: Master's Thesis - Community work specialisation 10 ECTS, MASA600: Master's Thesis 40 ECTS). The programme spans 4 terms. The first half of the programme comprises foundational thinking and philosophy of social science, theoretical and methodological tools for community work and social sciences research methods. The second half of the programme is comprised of topic-specific in-depth studies, student research and writing up the Master's thesis.

The Master's programme offers educational blocks of up to 6 weeks per term in addition to weekly tutoring. It is necessary to participate in these study-assemblies. It is not possible to complete the education as online studies.

Opportunities for international experiences

Bergen University College prioritises internationalisation. For students at the Master's programme in community work, it may be relevant to participate in international network gatherings or conferences in community work, intensive courses organised by Erasmus, in smaller, net-based courses in community work or in other courses with significant relevance for community work, or on conferences where the student may have his or her own presentation.

Opportunities for fitting in other higher-level educations into the Master´s degree

Other higher level educations may be accepted as partial fulfilment of the Master´s degree in community work. Individual applications are evaluated before fitting in is granted.