Marshall University is now offering an online-only option for the Master of Social Work program beginning this semester.

This allows students with a Bachelor of Social Work degree with a focus on behavioral health administration to continue their education while maintaining flexibility in their schedule. The hope is to allow social work students the ability to further advance their careers without requiring any sort of commute to campus.

“We wanted to target non-traditional students,” Shikeal Harris, the admissions coordinator for the program, said. “We want an option for people who work 40 hours a week and parent without having to interrupt their daily routine.”

The program requires students to complete 36 academic credit hours—including nine hours of field education—with no face-to-face or hybrid courses and focuses on careers in behavioral health administration. The flexibility of the program has already drawn a lot of interest from students.

“We have had a lot of interest in the program. We’re seeing a lot of people reach out,” Harris said.

Harris presented the online Master of Social Work program in October 2021 and Marshall started offering the program in June 2022.The social work department at Marshall University hopes to begin offering more online-only programs soon.

“We’re beginning to talk about taking the mainstream programs online,” Harris said. “We want to focus on our community, but also students from other universities that don’t offer online options.”

Currently, the online-only program is only offered to students with a focus on behavioral health, which will prepare them for clinical work such as assessing, treating, and evaluating mental health, drug abuse and physical health. The program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.

For anyone interested in the online-only Master of Social Work program, visit marshall.edu/social-work/ or contact Kameal Harris at [email protected]