Guarding the gates of the profession: Findings of a survey of gatekeeping mechanisms in Australian Bachelor of Social Work programs

Abstract

Gatekeeping is concerned with ensuring that social work graduates meet requisite competency standards for beginning practitioners. The issue which is of particular concern to social work educators within academia and in the field, ultimately has important ramifications for clients, yet it is rarely systematically considered. This paper is the first of two reports on the results of a survey of Australian Bachelor of Social Work programs regarding their gatekeeping mechanisms. The study sought information on the admission criteria to courses, gatekeeping functions associated with field education, and attitudes to counselling out of students for non-academic reasons. It was found that high priority was given to academic criteria at all points in the program, despite acknowledgement in the importance of skills, values and personal qualities. Whilst counselling out for non-academic reasons was used by most schools, few schools had written policies for terminating students enrolment for such reasons. Most schools also reported having difficulty deciding the extent to which non-academic criteria should be applied and how this should be done.