The School hosts a wide-range of doctoral and research students - including full-time students and part-time students, who are often studying alongside their professional role. We have six professors and a range of staff qualified to doctoral level who offer high quality supervision to our community of students.
Current social work students are studying adoption, child protection, elder abuse, disability and professional resilience, amongst other topics. Our main research activities and expertise include- child welfare policy and practice, residential child care, child protection, ethnography and global perspectives. Social work is a vibrant professional area with many government initiatives and chances of European co-operation.
We are unique in offering a range of opportunities in relation to playwork and play therapy, and we are able to offer supervision by the only Professor of Playwork in the UK. Our students are currently researching a diverse range of subjects, including the impact of tendering on play provision, the absence of play in the training of children's nurses, the role of playwork in prisons, the potential for playwork in the USA, the concept of embodiment when relating to children, and the role of play in the creative industries. We also have students focusing on improvised drama, therapeutic treasure baskets and therapeutic interventions with adopted children.
We also offer opportunities in the field of nursing, dementia, therapy and counselling.