Frequently asked questions

Graduates are employed in a wide range of government and voluntary organizations.
For further information: visit the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) website.

The UVic BSW degree is fully accredited by the Canadian Association for Social Work Education and graduates are eligible to register as a social worker in any Canadian province.
If you are considering practicing outside of Canada after graduation, you must contact the social work association or registration board in that jurisdiction to ensure that a Canadian BSW degree will meet their membership or registration requirements.

BSW applications are available on our website in December of each year and completed applications must be received by January 31. Please see Admission information for details.

Please see our Eligibility Document and other links on the Admission information page.

Pre-Social Work is only for 1st or 2nd year students who want to do undergraduate studies at UVic and are considering a future application to the Bachelor or Social Work.
Bachelor of Social Work is for applying to UVic once you have completed the Admission requirements for the BSW.
Being accepted to Pre-Social Work does not mean you are in the BSW program. Applying to the BSW program is a separate process.
Please note that while SOCW 200A & 200B and 3rd & 4th year social work courses are available by distance education, UVic does not offer general type courses (eg. Sociology, Psychology) by distance education. Therefore, it is not possible to take your first two years by distance education prior to applying for entry into the BSW program.

30 units (generally equivalent to 60 credits at other institutions) are approximately 20 single-term courses. Within the 30 units you should complete SOCW 200A and SOCW 200B, or their transfer credit equivalents, and a wide variety of liberal arts, social sciences and humanities courses.
Some subject examples are English, French, Greek and Roman studies, history, linguistics, Pacific and Asian studies, philosophy, religious studies, women’s studies, anthropology, economics, environmental studies, geography, political science, psychology, sociology, and Indigenous studies.

As part of the official application process, Undergraduate Admissions will evaluate your transcripts to calculate transfer credit. Please note that this is not completed by the School of Social Work.
For information about the transfer credits, please see the BSW Eligibility Document, the Academic Calendar – Applicants for transfer, and Undergraduate Admissions – Transfer credit.
Courses taken outside of BC are evaluated on a course-by-course basis by the applicable department during transcript evaluation.

Although you may get transfer credits completed courses to enter the program, you cannot use them in place of the 2 years of course work and field education needed to complete the Bachelor of Social Work degree.

The number of applicants admitted each year will depend on the resources available to the School and the number of qualified applicants. Admission is very competitive; we receive on average 500 or more applications per year for a limited number of seats.

Yes, the option of a distance education delivery method allows students to complete the BSW program while residing across Canada. Please note, distance education courses are not facilitated internationally.

Current course tuition fees and student fees are available in the Academic Calendar and are generally updated May 1^st each year.

Tuition estimate:

*These are just estimates of the cost of courses, not including required student fees*

Multiply the “per credit unit” tuition charge to obtain estimates:

1.5 x fee units = cost of a typical course

4.5 x fee units = cost of a field education course

30 x fee units = cost of the BSW program

For estimates of tuition and student fees combined, the Tuition, fees & budgeting page is a good resource.

If you haven’t already looked at what is needed by UVic for third party funding, then make sure you visit the third party sponsorship page.
There is also a special page that has a little more information on band-funding. This has information on the third-party billing form that a Band office needs to send to Accounting services (for tuition) and what documentation to send to the UVic Bookstore (for books and supplies).

If you are completing a full-time course load, the program may be completed within 6 semesters (including 2 semesters of Field Education), depending on course offerings. However, if you are trying to balance work, family commitments, course work and field education placements, you may want to take a part-time course load instead.
The completion time for students taking a part-time course load is highly variable. It is up to you how long it takes to complete the program given student status is maintained.

In most circumstances your required field education placements can be completed in or near your home community. Visit Field Education for more information.

If you have completed a minimum of two years paid or unpaid social justice experience (approximately 4000 hours) within the previous five years, you may qualify to complete a prior learning assessment (PLA) course in place of the third year field education placement. You can speak to a Field Education Coordinator about this possibility when you apply for your 3rd year Field Education course.

You will complete the same course and field education requirements for your program regardless of the course delivery method.

SOCW courses do not have exams during the university’s final exam period. If any quizzes or exams are required for a course they are completed in class or online for distance education courses.

SOCW 200A and SOCW 200B are open to registration by all UVic students. A maximum of 3.0 additional units of selected social work courses may be taken with permission by admitted UVic students who have 30 units including SOCW 200 and 200B or equivalents, subject to availability.