Accreditation

No, the accrediting authority of CSWE extends only to the United States and its territories. If you attended a social work program overseas and wish to work in the United States, it is advisable to have your degree evaluated by CSWE’s International Social Work Degree Recognition and Evaluation Service.

Most accredited social work programs utilize distance education for some of their courses. Most offer part-time, extended-day, or evening courses at their main, satellite, or branch campuses, which may or may not use distance education.

CSWE has accredited a small number of social work programs that use distance-education technology (such as online courses, television, other types of instruction, or a hybrid approach of face-to-face and distance education) to complete a large section of their baccalaureate and master's degree requirements. 

You can view a list of accredited distance education programs that requested to be included on our web page. All accredited programs are subject to the same accreditation standards and review criteria by the Commission on Accreditation, regardless of the curriculum delivery methods used. Thus, if you find a program with distance education components that is not on this list, that program will still be accredited if it is listed in our Directory of Accredited Programs.

Each program design is different, and each may have specific admissions requirements for its distance-education programs. Please contact these schools directly.

01/31/2012

We encourage students to look for a program that meets both their professional and personal goals.

The issue for which a complaint is filed must be related to the requirements of CSWE’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. In addition, before submitting the complaint to CSWE, individuals must follow the complaint procedures within their own institutions. Please refer to complaint procedures for filing a complaint.

Under the 2001 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards, programs working toward accreditation are first in precandidacy and then candidacy. Precandidacy is "a time that a new program and its institutional administration engages in a period of preliminary planning, securing resources, and hiring faculty before submitting an application" (Handbook of Accreditation Standards and Procedures, 5th ed., 2003, p. 3). 

Candidacy is the "first step toward the initial accreditation process" (Handbook of Accreditation Standards and Procedures, 5th ed., 2003, p. 3). 

Once a program is granted initial accreditation, it "automatically covers those graduating classes of students who were admitted during or after the academic year, August to June, in which the program was granted candidacy.

Students admitted prior to the academic year in which the program was granted candidacy [such as precandidacy] will not have graduated from a Council-accredited social work education program" (Handbook of Accreditation Standards and Procedures, 5th ed., 2003, p. 6).

CSWE accredits social work education programs; it does not provide qualitative information about programs nor does it compare or "rank" them. Accreditation is meant to provide assurance that a program has met the profession’s minimum standards for professional social work education. You may find that a practice-oriented profession like social work is more likely to make hiring decisions based on an individual’s professional experience rather than on the school attended.

CSWE limits its accreditation function to programs that prepare students for professional social work practice, i.e., baccalaureate and master’s degree programs. In general, associate degree programs prepare students for paraprofessional-level positions in social service agencies. 

Doctoral degrees in social work are typically research-oriented and primarily prepare students for academic, research, or administrative positions. In most instances, persons seeking a doctorate in social work already have a master's degree in social work.