Department of Social Work
Milestones Of Department
- 1955 : Inception of the Department of Social Work, offering a one-year Diploma Course in Social Service (DSS) and affiliated to the University of Madras.
- 1960: The Diploma in Social Services (DSS) received affiliation from the University of Kerala.
- 1961: Initiation of two year Master’s Degree Programme in Social Work (MSW), first in Kerala, affiliated to Kerala University with specialisation in Personnel Management, Industrial Relations and Labour Welfare.
- 1968: The Post Graduate Department of Social Work shifted to Rajagiri college of social sciences.
- 1969: Introduced specialisations including Family and Child Welfare, Community Development, Medical and Psychiatric Social Work, Social Welfare Administration in the MSW programme.
- 1970: The National Service Scheme (NSS) Training and Orientation Centre for the training of NSS Programme officers from all the universities in Kerala started.
- 1971: The Department of Social Work hosted its first National Seminar in collaboration with Indian Council for Social Welfare titled “Spotlight on Children”.
- 1972: Rajagiri Research Institute was established to spearhead research and dissemination in Social Sciences.
- 1980: PG Institute of Social Work was recognized as an Independent College affiliated to the University of Kerala and the college was named as “Rajagiri College of Social Sciences”.
- 1982- Started Middle Level Training Centre (MLTC)
- 1982: Community Aid & Sponsorship Programme (CASP) started under the aegis of the Department of Social Work as community outreach services.
- 1983 - Started AWTC (Anganwadi Training Centre)
- 1984: Personnel Management specialization was delinked from MSW programme into Post Graduate Programme titled M.A. (PM & IR).
- 1986: The Social Work Programmes were affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.
- 1988: The Department of Social Work was recognised as a centre for Doctoral Research for Social Work, Sociology and Allied Social Sciences under Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.
- 1990: Voluntary Co-ordinating Agency for Adoption (VCA) was set up.
- 1994- Established Rajagiri free-drug cell at General Hospital, Ernakulam
- 1997: The Department of Social Work constituted Fr. Jose Alex Award for Excellence in Social Work Profession, awarded to social work professionals/Organizations in every alternative years.
- 1998: The first International tie-up of the Department of Social Work with School of Social work, University of Maryland, Baltimore and Western Michigan University (WMU) in United States of America were operationalized.
- 1998: The Department launched an annual Social Work Conference titled DYUTI (Development Yearnings for a United and Transformed India), a forum for deliberation on vital issues of development from a rights perspective to be hosted nationally and internationally on alternative years respectively.
- 1999: Rajagiri Family Counselling Centre was established under the aegis of the Department of Social Work.
- 2001: Diploma in Social Services course was restructured as Post Graduate Diploma in Administration of Human Services (PGDAHS).
- 2001: The Department domiciliated CHILDLINE Cochin Nodal Centre.
- 2002: Undergraduate Programme in Social Work, Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) introduced was introduced by the Department of Social Work, the first such course in Kerala.
- 2002- CASP (1982) Re-structured into Rajagiri Out reach
- 2002- Integrating the three prominent Projects of Rajagiri College viz. Rajagiri Community Development Scheme (RCDS), Centre for Health Care Research and Education (CHCRE) and Free Drug Cell (FDC) Rajagiri Outreach was formed.
- 2005: Golden jubilee celebration of Social work Programmes.
- 2005: Rajagiri Journal of Social Development (ISSN 0973-3086) a peer-reviewed bi-annual journal was launched at the time of the golden jubilee celebration. It is a UGC approved journal under social sciences (Journal No.47711).
- 2013: Started second batch of MSW (aided) programme
- 2014: The department has undertaken 2 studies of Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Department of Social Justice, Govt. of Kerala.
- 2015: PGDAHS programme revised and named as Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Social Work and Counselling Practice (PGDCSW).
- 2015- Started MPhil (Social Work)
- 2017: The department was granted prestigious UGC-UKIERI Joint Research Programme.
- 2018: The Department hosted Annual Symposium of Building Networks and Frameworks for Global Social Work titled “Valuing Diversity in Global Social Work: Practice with People on the Move” along with the consortium partners of University of Eastern Finland, College of Social Work, University of Utah and Faculty of Social Work, Hochschule Landshut - University of Applied Science.
- 2018: The department was granted the prestigious UGC-DAAD Project-based Personnel Exchange Programme.
- 2018: The department was entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating the activities under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Scheme of MHRD in 5 adopted panchayats of Ernakulam district.
- 2019: The department hosted India’s first International Summer University in Social Work on the theme “Social Care and Well-being of vulnerable populations” along with its 8 international consortium partners.
- 2019: The Department hosted 10th International Summer University on the theme “Social Care and Well-being of vulnerable populations” along with the consortium partners of Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Western Switzerland), Western Sydney University (Australia) Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), University of British Columbia (Canada), University of California (USA), Shadong University (China), and University of Ouaga (Burkina Faso).
- 2020: The Department was granted a Research project on Practices, Priorities and Challenges in Student Mobility Programmes for Field Education: Developing Supervision Framework for Better Outcome by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)
- 2021: The Department received sanction for Rajagiri – Community Based Action for Drug Prevention (R-COMBAT) from the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, GOI under Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA).
- 2023: started new specialisation on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in MSW
- 2024: started new programme in Social Work – MSW Clinical Social Work