The Department of Social Policy and Social Work (SPSW) at York is one of the leading UK centres for teaching and research in social policy, social work, applied social science and professional development for public management.

The most recent national review of our research - the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise - placed us in the top five of large departments in the country. We pride ourselves on the calibre of our academic staff, the majority of whom have been assessed as either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

We have a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes with real-world relevance, and are strongly committed to supporting our students throughout their degrees, particularly through the system of individualised personal supervision. We offer a stimulating teaching and research environment in an open, informal and friendly setting. The Department is pleased to welcome students and researchers from all over the world, as well as the UK.

The City of York itself was the site of one of the world’s first scientific studies of poverty, Seebohm Rowntree’s Poverty: A study of Town Life (1901). A hundred years since its first publication, in 2001 this seminal work was reprinted with a preface by Professor of Social Policy, Jonathan Bradshaw. Today, the Department is appropriately located in the Seebohm Rowntree Building at the University of York.

Professor Mary Maynard
Head of Department