SAQA

All qualifications and part qualifications registered on the National Qualifications Framework are public property. Thus the only payment that can be made for them is for service and reproduction. It is illegal to sell this material for profit. If the material is reproduced or quoted, the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) should be acknowledged as the source.

SOUTH AFRICAN QUALIFICATIONS AUTHORITY

REGISTERED QUALIFICATION THAT HAS PASSED THE END DATE:

Master of Arts: Social Work

SAQA QUAL ID	QUALIFICATION TITLE
7147	Master of Arts: Social Work
ORIGINATOR
Stellenbosch University
PRIMARY OR DELEGATED QUALITY ASSURANCE FUNCTIONARY			NQF SUB-FRAMEWORK
CHE - Council on Higher Education			HEQSF - Higher Education Qualifications Sub-framework
QUALIFICATION TYPE	FIELD		SUBFIELD
Master's Degree	Field 09 - Health Sciences and Social Services		Promotive Health and Developmental Services
ABET BAND	MINIMUM CREDITS	PRE-2009 NQF LEVEL	NQF LEVEL	QUAL CLASS
Undefined	120	Level 8 and above	NQF Level 09	Regular-Provider-ELOAC
REGISTRATION STATUS		SAQA DECISION NUMBER	REGISTRATION START DATE	REGISTRATION END DATE
Passed the End Date - Status was "Reregistered"		SAQA 0695/12	2012-07-01	2014-12-31
LAST DATE FOR ENROLMENT		LAST DATE FOR ACHIEVEMENT
2015-12-31		2018-12-31

In all of the tables in this document, both the pre-2009 NQF Level and the NQF Level is shown. In the text (purpose statements, qualification rules, etc), any references to NQF Levels are to the pre-2009 levels unless specifically stated otherwise.

This qualification is replaced by:

Qual ID	Qualification Title	Pre-2009 NQF Level	NQF Level	Min Credits	Replacement Status
96480	Master of Social Work	Not Applicable	NQF Level 09	180	Complete

PURPOSE AND RATIONALE OF THE QUALIFICATION

*to equip students with a specialised understanding of the problems pertinent to a particular field of specialisation in social work and of relevant past and current approaches to these problems;

*to equip students with the research ability/problem solving capacity to participate in the search for productive approaches to these problems

*to prepare students for participation in scholarly debates within the discipline and preparing them to teach in social work

* to prepare students for doctoral work in the field of social work;

*to produce individuals who are qualified to engage in identifying, managing and solving important problems in various sectors of the social welfare field and the profession of social work.

LEARNING ASSUMED TO BE IN PLACE AND RECOGNITION OF PRIOR LEARNING

Senior Certificate with Matriculation Endorsement or equivalent university admission qualification.

First degree: BA(SW)-degree (4years) or a qualification that is regarded by Senate as equivalent in the case of a one year MA(SW)-degree

Honours degree: BA(SW)-Honours in the case of a one year MA(SW)-degree.

RECOGNISE PREVIOUS LEARNING?

EXIT LEVEL OUTCOMES

Critical cross-field outcomes

The successful Master of Arts (Social Work) student will have:

1. Mastered research skills and the logic of scholarly argument;
2. Developed a capacity for theoretical, self-reflexive, and critical thinking and solving of problems;
3. The ability to think in terms of theory, as an instrument for understanding reality;
4. The ability to work systematically and independently in approaching and solving abstract and complex problems;
5. The ability to present, and challenge, scholarly positions in forums/publications of substance;
6. The ability to identify and apply criteria of relevance and significance pertinent to various contexts of inquiry.

Specific Outcomes:

The successful Master of Arts (Social Work) student will:

1. Have specialised knowledge of theoretical and methodological traditions in social work;
2. Be thoroughly familiar with academic, ethical, and/or professional standards in the social work discipline;
3. Be able to identify and formulate pertinent research problems in social work and to apply appropriate knowledge and skills to solve them;
4. Be able to critically appraise accepted solutions to these problems by identifying and evaluating the assumptions on which they rest;
5. Be able to develop, in a self-critical way, new/more adequate solutions to these problems;
6. Be able to report the findings in the appropriate scholarly format

ASSOCIATED ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

1. The assessment used for this qualification complies with the stated purposes of the qualifications.

2. A range of formative and summative assessments is used, but the emphasis falls on a thesis or interrelated series of assignments in which students have to display the desired outcomes. Written and oral examinations and presentations, role-playing simulations, assignments, and case studies may also be used as instruments of assessment.

3. The appropriate kinds of assessment are used in an integrated manner to determine whether the specified outcomes have been achieved (see 6 below).

4. The assessment used meets the standard and level of achievement for NQF level 8a.

Integrated Assessment:

Integrated assessment is accomplished by examining a thesis or a series of interrelated assignments that reflect the desired outcomes. The thesis or series of assignments represents an integrated summation of the level of knowledge and insight gained by the successful student as well as of his/her academic and communicative abilities.

ARTICULATION OPTIONS

This qualification serves as an entry point to the related qualification(s)

DPhil (Social Work)

MODERATION OPTIONS

The University of Stellenbosch has a system of external peer review and evaluation of departments. One of the aspects of the system is an evaluation of the standards and assessment practices of the department.

External examiners who are registered as social workers with the South African Council for Social Service professions and who have at least an MA (SW)-degree from a recognised tertiary institution, moderate all MA(SW) theses

CRITERIA FOR THE REGISTRATION OF ASSESSORS

The academic staff of the University of Stellenbosch will participate in a manner which fits into the quality assurance system of the University.

REREGISTRATION HISTORY

As per the SAQA Board decision/s at that time, this qualification was Reregistered in 2006; 2009; 2012.

NOTES

N/A

LEARNING PROGRAMMES RECORDED AGAINST THIS QUALIFICATION:

When qualifications are replaced, some of their learning programmes are moved to being recorded against the replacement qualifications. If a learning programme appears to be missing from here, please check the replacement.

NONE

PROVIDERS CURRENTLY ACCREDITED TO OFFER THIS QUALIFICATION:

This information shows the current accreditations (i.e. those not past their accreditation end dates), and is the most complete record available to SAQA as of today. Some Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionaries have a lag in their recording systems for provider accreditation, in turn leading to a lag in notifying SAQA of all the providers that they have accredited to offer qualifications and unit standards, as well as any extensions to accreditation end dates. The relevant Primary or Delegated Quality Assurance Functionary should be notified if a record appears to be missing from here.

1.	Stellenbosch University