Variations in Progression of Social Work Students in England: Using student data to help promote achievement: Undergraduate full-time students’ progression on the social work degree

Monitoring student progression and achievement has become an essential part of the way in which higher education institutions (HEIs) identify if they are achieving their teaching and learning outcomes. As the regulator of social work and social care in England, the General Social Care Council (GSCC) uses data that HEIs provide on the numbers of students beginning and completing social work qualifying programmes to help monitor quality and to ensure that the GSCC meets its responsibilities as a regulator to ensure that all students are treated fairly. Since 2005, the GSCC has been supporting research looking at progression and achievement among all those beginning social work qualifying programmes in England. The total dataset now numbers over 50,000 students enrolling between 1995-2007. This report is based on the analysis of what happened to all the 5,275 full-time undergraduate students who enrolled on the new social work degree programmes in England between the years 2003-05. These two cohorts were chosen to allow enough time for them to complete their three years of undergraduate study.