Cairn University’s new master of social work program, launched in fall 2020, has achieved a milestone – candidacy for accreditation by the Council of Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation.
At its February meeting, the commission announced Cairn University’s MSW program qualified to move from the status of pre-candidacy to candidacy. This indicates an MSW program has made progress toward meeting criteria for the assessment of quality evaluated through a peer review process.
Students who enter programs that attain candidacy in or before the academic year in which they begin their program of study will be retroactively recognized as having graduated from a CSWE-accredited program once the program attains initial accreditation. For the Cairn MSW, this means students currently in the 2020-21 academic year and beyond will qualify for a CSWE-accredited MSW.
Cairn is in a good position as it takes further steps toward full accreditation, joining Cairn’s BSW which has been accredited by CSWE since 1974. Dr. Lawrence Ressler, MSW program director, has previously led the charge of other schools’ accreditations. He is confident that, at the end of the three-year process, the Cairn University MSW will be granted accreditation and he is pleased that this will extend to the students who began the program in fall 2020.
Visit cairn.edu/socialwork for more information.
