UzhhorodNationalUniversity was one of the first universities of Ukraine to begin the training courses for students in the specialty “Social Work” in 1996. So the Department of Social Work was established at the Law Faculty. PhD, Professor I. Myhovych was appointed the Head of the Department. Since 2004 the Department has been headed by the Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor I. Kozubovska.

Since 2006 the Department of Sociology and Social Work has become a structural subdivision of the Social Sciences Faculty.

Through the international projects most of the teachers of the Department of Social Work have been trained at Higher Education and Social Welfare Institutions of Belgium, Great Britain, Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark and the United States where their foreign colleagues shared their experience.

Some of the foreign lecturers and practical social workers have been involved into the process of training: lecturing and conducting workshops with the students of Social Work Department. The graduates of the Department are highly qualified and about 70% of them are employed. Some of them are in the staff of the leading government, educational and public organizations of Ukraine, the UK, the USA, Russia, Hungary and Slovakia

The training courses at the Department have been provided by 2 Doctors of Science, professors, 11 Candidates of Sciences, Associate Professors and a senior lecturer. In addition, the leading lecturers of other Departments and foreign Universities are involved in the training process.

The department provides training in the following levels:

• “Bachelor” - the period of study 4 years (8 semesters), the qualification degree “Bachelor of Social Work” (6.13 0102);
• “Bachelor” - the period of study 4 years (8 semesters), the qualification degree “Bachelor of Sociology” (6.030101);
• “Specialist” - the period of study (2 semesters), the qualification degree “Specialist Social Work” (7.13010201);
• “Master” - the period of study 1 year (2 semesters), the qualification degree “Master of Social Work” (8.13010201)

In the future the Department is going to develop the programs for the degree “Master of Sociology” and “Junior Professionals in Social Work” as well.

The Department (one of few in Ukraine) has got its own library with more than 8000 copies of foreign and domestic literature in different fields of knowledge: Education Science, Law, Sociology, Social Work, Management and Foreign Languages.

The staff of the Department is actively involved in the research and scientific work. For many years the Department of Sociology and Social Work of the University has been an active member of the international scientific and practical cooperation with other educational Institutions of Ukraine that train specialists in Social Work (University “Kyiv-MohylaAcademy”, TernopilNationalPedagogicalUniversity, CherkasyNationalUniversity and NationalUniversity “Lviv Polytechnic”). The Department actively collaborates with the Universities of the UK, Belgium, the USA, Russia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and others.

For a long period of time the Department fruitfully collaborates with the Project “TOUCH” (the USA) which aims to help children-orphans with mental disabilities, and with the charity Found named after Fred Robbie (the USA) which, in particular, presented the library of the Department some copies of encyclopedias and scientific literature in the field of Sociology, Social Work and Psychology. The Fund provides the best students from low-income families with scholarships.

In recent years the Department has been trying to conduct the volunteer activity.