Since 2013 the council has been undertaking a student data collection project. The aim of the project is for members to have access to information about student numbers in accredited Social Work programs across Australia. This will allow members to place their course amongst other courses in Australia and to clearly see changes over time.
A yearly request for data is made to the Department of Education and Training for data submitted under the field of education (FOE) code for Social Work, 90501. Further data is supplemented from individual Social Work departments. Data is collected for total number of students (persons not EFT) and total number of international students in the following programs:
- Bachelor of Social Work
- Masters of Social Work Qualifying
- Honours
- Post Qualifying Master of Social Work
- Higher Degree by Research Masters
- Higher Degree by Research PhD
In addition, the number of field placement, number of PhD completions and titles of PhD completions are also collected. Data collected from this project is used to supply the key statistics section on our website. Furthermore, the council is continuing to explore ways it can utilise the data on our website to provide further information about Social Work programs in Australia to relevant stake holders and the general public.