Renmin University of China (RUC) is one of the first universities in China to develop social work discipline. The bachelor of social work program started to recruit students since early 1990s. The Department of Sociology at RUC established academic master of social work program in 2003. Since 2004, the doctoral program of sociology also started to recruit potential PhD students in social policy and social work. The Department of Social Work was established in 2005. In 2009, the social work department established professional master of social work program. The department changed its name to the Department of Social Work and Social Policy in 2018. In 2020, the bachelor of social work program was included in the list of national first-class undergraduate programs. The professional master of social policy program started to recruit students in 2021. Furthermore, our department has built strong international collaborations with overseas universities by promoting exchange programs and dual degree programs, and the participation of our teachers and students in academic conferences and internship programs held by overseas universities.

Currently, our department has a total of four professors, six associate professors, and four assistant professors. We also have practice consultants from social work organizations to supervise our students’ internship. Our professors not only have rich teaching experiences and supervised hundreds of postgraduate students, but also have rich research and practice experiences. They have undertaken a number of important research projects from the National Social Science Foundation and other national-level research funding. They also published hundreds of high-quality research papers in CSSCI and SSCI journals. Moreover, our professors served many important roles (e.g., director and senior consultant) in national and provincial-level social work related associations.

We have established four distinct research clusters, including social policy and social governance, gerontological social work, child and family social work, and medical social work. In the past few decades, the commitment of our department is to develop social work education, to equip our students with sufficient knowledge and skills to carry out social work research and practice in this rapidly changing society, and eventually to make our own contributions in improving the quality of life of Chinese citizens. The 30 years history of social work education at RUC reflects the public recognition of the significance of social work and its unique contribution in the development of the Chinese society of common prosperity.

The next decade will be an exciting journey for our department to further develop our research and teaching strength, and continue to play a leading role in social work education in China. Our department is eager to develop professional doctoral program of social work (DSW) in the next few years. The development of the new campus of RUC in Tongzhou district will provide our department with a new platform and opportunity to keep moving forward.