Program Overview

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Social Wellbeing Studies

The Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Social Wellbeing Studies is a degree program designed to develop a number of important skills, including intellectual, personal, research, and organizational skills. This program prepares students for employment with government departments, ministries, and agencies, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private providers of welfare, social, and human services.

Program Overview

The concept behind this degree is that students are free to design their own undergraduate program by registering for a number of elective study-units on offer by the various departments within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing. These study-units are chosen based on the student's academic interest and career plans, alongside a number of compulsory core units.

Program Structure

The program is structured over 10 semesters, with a total of 180 ECTS credits. The mode of study is part-time day.

Year 1

• Students are required to choose elective study-units to the value of 8 ECTS credits from the elective pool on offer throughout the year.
• Compulsory units include:
  • COU1302: Inter and Intra Personal Skills (8 ECTS)
  • SWB1001: Foundations of Social Wellbeing (6 ECTS)
  • SWP1262: Scholarship Skills for Social Policy and Social Work (6 ECTS)
• Requirement for regular progression to Year 2: 36 ECTS credits

Year 2

• Students are required to choose elective study-units to the value of 18 ECTS credits from the elective pool on offer throughout the year.
• Compulsory units include:
  • GDS2002: The Intersectionality of Inequality (4 ECTS)
  • SWP2311: Research Methods in Social Work and Social Policy 1 (5 ECTS)
  • EER2506: Transformative Learning for Sustainable Development and Wellbeing (4 ECTS)
  • SWP2321: Research Methods in Social Work and Social Policy 2 (5 ECTS)
• Requirement for regular progression to Year 3: 36 ECTS credits

Year 3

• Students are required to choose elective study-units to the value of 32 ECTS credits from the elective pool on offer throughout the year.
• Compulsory units include:
  • COU3206: Advanced Intrapersonal Skills (4 ECTS)
• Requirement for regular progression to Year 4: 36 ECTS credits

Year 4

• Students are required to choose elective study-units to the value of 36 ECTS credits from the elective pool on offer throughout the year.
• Requirement for regular progression to Year 5: 36 ECTS credits

Year 5

• Students are required to choose elective study-units to the value of 26 ECTS credits from the elective pool on offer throughout the year.
• Compulsory units include:
  • SWB3001: Dissertation (10 ECTS)
• Requirement for award of B.A. (Hons) Social Wellbeing Studies: 180 ECTS credits

Skills Developed

This program develops a number of important skills, including:

• Intellectual skills: critical thought, analysis and synthesis, creative thinking, problem-solving
• Personal skills: reflexivity, communication, assertiveness, time management, stress management, decision-making, ethics and values
• Research skills: basic skills of independent library and internet research; critical analysis; quantitative and qualitative research design and methods
• Organisational skills: the capacity to set goals and to organise oneself to reach them

Employability and Personal Development

This program provides skills that are traditionally of great relevance to students' future employability, including initiative and self-motivation; professional integrity and the capacity to adhere to standards and procedures; resilience and stress tolerance; verbal and written communication; teamwork and interpersonal sensitivity; analysis and investigation; planning and organisation; creativity; and problem-solving.

Tuition Fees

• Fee per academic year for non-EU applicants: Eur 4,250

Admission Criteria

• General Entry Requirements: Refer to the list of country-specific qualifications
• Notes and any other requirements: Applicants considered as "Adult Learners" must be in possession of those qualifications and/or experience that would satisfy the Faculty Admissions Committee that they have reached the academic standard required to follow the Course with profit.

Research Areas

The program covers a wide range of key facts, concepts, principles, and explanatory frameworks that bring together opportunities for conceptual achievement as well as active engagement in society, focusing on wellbeing and social inclusion.