Brief History of the Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Based on the request of the Federal Government, Social Work programme was established in 1976 in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Nigeria, Nsukka principally to train and produce middle level manpower who can man the Social Welfare Departments in the Ministries.  The University of Nigeria, Nsukka has therefore pioneered the training of University level Social Workers in the country, in order to satisfy the need for this specialized manpower. It offered only the two-year Diploma Programme at first take off.

In 1985 a three-year Degree Programme to absorb some of the graduates from the Diploma programme started. In 1986/87 session a four-year undergraduate programme through JAMB and Post–Graduate Programmes viz Post-Graduate Diploma, M.Sc and Ph.D in Social Work commenced. In November 2001, Social Work Programme attained a Sub-Departmental Status and in 2006, it was granted a full Departmental Status.  Since 2006, the Department of Social Work has undergone three National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation and scaled through all despite the huge challenges encountered.

Currently (September 2020) the department has an undergraduate student strength of 470 and 140 Postgraduate students. Over the years the staff strength of the department has grown to 40 with more than 10 with PhD degrees. The Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nsukka has the singular honor of producing the first Professor of Social Work in Nigeria, in the person of Professor Uzoma Odera Okoye in 2011 and has also produced many students that are operating in various spheres of life in Nigeria and outside the country.