Teaching and Learning

Our teaching programmes encompass three broad disciplinary areas:

1. Social Policy
2. Social Work
3. Youth Work and Community Development.

Our learning approach emphasises critical thinking. We want our students to go out into the world ready to ask questions, but also are prepared to innovatively and creatively answer those questions.  Through lectures, writing and community engagement, we give students the tools to empower their own futures and become the person they want to be with the necessary skills-set to pursue the career of their choice. Student participation is an essential part of the School's teaching and learning environment.

Teaching methods encourage maximum student participation and include lectures, seminars, fieldwork, group and individual tutorials, group work, projects, meetings, workshops, practical exercises and written work.

Research

The School is a research active academic unit with a strong commitment to both applied and more theoretical research. We have a wide research profile which focuses on research on specific groups and issues, and the education and training of social professions. The quality and quantity of research undertaken is evidenced by the large number of publications disseminated from research findings. 

Grant capture in the last ten years is about €5.5 million. The School has been awarded research funding from a variety of sources including Combat Poverty, ISPCC, Royal Irish Academy, Dept. of the Taoiseach, the Higher Education Authority, HSE, the British Council, the Irish Research Council and Horizon 2020. The research is strongly aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals. Socially engaged research activities such as CARL are also a cornerstone of our research output.

Our School fosters and mentors scholarship through our fourth-level programmes. Many of our doctoral students have successfully secured scholarships and subsequently go into post-doctoral research employment. 

Public Engagement and Community Involvement

Community Engagement is embedded in our everyday practices as educators, researchers, community advocates and activists. Many staff members are involved in civil society working actively in the voluntary and community sector. Socially engaged research activities such as Community-Academic Research Links (CARL) are the cornerstones of the School’s research output. Staff are also engaged in adult and community education in Cork and its environs.

Diversity, Access and Widening Participation

The School of Applied Social Studies is committed to promoting diversity through widening participation as part of the multicultural reality of Ireland in the 21^st Century.  We start from the premise that each person is unique.  Our being different is what makes us unique as human beings.  The School’s programmes seek to promote curiosity and appreciation of what is different, with a view to opening up new worlds of understanding to the learner.  We value differences in class, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ideological beliefs and ability as the most valuable asset of the University.  In all our programmes, diversity is valued as an important source of intellectual enrichment and personal development.

Fourth Level and Graduate Education Programmes

The School of Applied Social Studies has a very strong record at fourth level education guided by its philosophy of lifelong learning. It offers research PhDs as well as a range of taught programmes including the DSocSc practitioner doctorate, the Master of Social Work, the MSocSc (Voluntary and Community Sector Management), and the online MSocSc (Social Policy and Social Justice) which is commencing in September 2024. 

School Strategic Plan

The School recently published its latest strategic plan: School Strategic Plan 2019-2024