The School of Social Work (SOSW) at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was established in 2007. It aims at providing quality education in the areas of Social Work, HIV/AIDS, counselling, tribal studies and family studies by offering programmes from Certificate to Doctoral Degree.

The SOSW at IGNOU is the first School of Social work to be offering social work programmes in ODL mode. It is the first school of Social Work in India to take social work education to all the States and Union Territories in the country as well as to SAARC and African nations. It has indigenously developed high quality Self Instructional Materials (SIM) and uses multi-media approach for imparting social work teaching and training both in English and Hindi. It offers social work programmes to in-service learners and engages a large number of practitioners for field work supervision.

Vision

• To provide inclusive and quality education in social work across the country and beyond the borders.

Mission

• To provide quality education through open and distance learning using multi-pronged strategies and services to reach the unreached with an emphasis on social work values and ethics whereby improving the services in social welfare sectors.

Objectives

• To promote human resources aiming at improving the quality of life of poorest of the poor.
• To meet the growing demand for professionally trained social workers across the country.
• To provide social work education and training based on indigenous knowledge and uniform curriculum across the country.
• To help the learner acquire professional skills and knowledge to help the clients to deal with their emotional and psychological problems.
• To help the learner acquire professional skills and develop capacity in helping people to solve various social and economic problems.
• To help the learner to develop required attitudes in understanding people’s problem solving interventions.

Milestones of SOSW

2007
Establishment of SOSW with the approval of the visitor namely, The President of India
CAFE: Certificate in HIV and Family Education (ODL)
DAFE: Diploma in HIV and Family Education (ODL)
BSW: Bachelor of Social Work (ODL)
CBCI Chair

2008
M.Phil: Master of Philosophy in Social Work (On campus)
Ph.D: Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work (On campus)
MSW: Master in Social Work (ODL)
PGDSW: Post Graduate Diploma in Social Work (ODL)
CAFÉ: Revised Version (ODL)
DAFE: Revised Version (ODL)

2009
MSW: Master in Social Work: Philanthropic Social Work (on-campus)

2010
MSW: Master in Social Work: Counselling (on campus)

2011
CSWCJS : Certificate in Social Work and Criminal Justice System (ODL)
PGDSWT : Post Graduate Diploma in Social Work Among Tribals (ODL)
• Mother Teresa Chair
• Centre for Tibetan Studies

2014
MSW: Master in Social Work Counselling (ODL)

2018
CTRBS: Certificate in Tribals Studies ODL)
PGDCOUN: Post Graduate Diploma in Social Work Counselling (ODL)

2019
CAFE: Second revised version
DAFE: Second revised version
MSW: Revised Version

2020
CTRBS : Certificate in Tribals Studies (ODL)