Social Services Worker to Bachelor of Public Administration (BPA) – Providing more university transfer pathways for college students of the Social Service Worker diploma programs

This project establishes transfer pathways between various streams within Social Service programs (SSW, SSW-Immigrant and Refugee and SSW-Gerontology) at Seneca College and the Bachelor of Public Administration degree program at York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University. While historically, students from Seneca or other SSW college diploma programs from other publicly funded colleges could transfer to the BPA degree at York University under the University’s block credit policy, no specific transfer pathway/articulation agreement existed. Furthermore, SSW diploma students seeking university degrees had traditionally focused on transfer to Bachelor of Social Work programs where demand is quite high. The BPA was selected based on the assumption of potential program affinity with SSW diploma programs and graduate interest in careers in public policy administration. Although the project took longer to complete than anticipated, the project was able to achieve more than its original intention. The project met its aim of creating college diploma to university degree transfer pathways from Seneca’s SSW diploma programs to York’s Bachelor of Public Administration degrees (Honours 120 credits and Specialized Honours 120 credits). The project was also able to expand its scope and developed four additional college to university transfer pathways to the following undergraduate degree programs within York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies: Multicultural and Indigenous Studies (Honours120 credits), Multicultural & Indigenous Studies (90 credits), Human Rights & Equity Studies (Honours 120 credits) and Human Rights & Equity Studies (90 credits). The project also explored and created additional university degree to college diploma transfer pathways from York’s same degree programs to Seneca’s SSW diploma programs.