Albertus Magnus College & Quinnipiac University Announce New Social Work Partnership
New Haven, Conn., September 8, 2022 – Albertus Magnus College and Quinnipiac University today announced an innovative new agreement that will allow graduates of Albertus to complete their Master of Social Work (MSW) degree at Quinnipiac.
To be eligible for the combined degree program, which aims to help remedy the massive social worker shortages the United States is facing, students from Albertus Magnus must complete their bachelor’s degrees with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 and 20 semester credits in liberal arts courses. They also will be required to complete nine credits of prerequisite courses in Quinnipiac’s MSW program while enrolled in their undergraduate major at Albertus Magnus.
"We are very enthusiastic about entering into this partnership with Quinnipiac University. We firmly believe that through collaboration, institutions of higher learning can offer more educational opportunities for students, which in turn will lead to even more fruitful careers in our state. Commitment and partnership are what this agreement with Quinnipiac is all about," said Albertus Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Sean O'Connell, Ph.D.
The combined degree allows students to complete both their undergraduate degree and MSW in 5 ½ years. Students also will save the tuition for the nine credits of the MSW courses which is counted towards their undergraduate courses at Albertus Magnus and the MSW at Quinnipiac.
“We are delighted to have this combined degree partnership between Albertus Magnus and Quinnipiac University’s master of social work program,” said Carol Awasu, director of the MSW program at Quinnipiac. “This new pathway contributes to the increase of professional social workers in mental healthcare in Connecticut and beyond.”
Students within this program will receive a significant per credit percent scholarship off Quinnipiac’s published tuition rate for the MSW program. The scholarship amount will be determined by a student’s academic achievement while in the undergraduate degree portion of this program, as follows:
- Students with an incoming GPA of ≥ 3.50 receive scholarship equal to 30% reduction in tuition
- Students with an incoming GPA ≥ 3.00 receive scholarship equal to 25% reduction in tuition
"We are excited to launch this partnership with Albertus Magnus," said Debra Liebowitz, provost at Quinnipiac University. "It provides a terrific, accelerated pathway for students to make a difference in a field where the workforce needs are significant."
About Albertus Magnus College
Founded in 1925, Albertus is a coeducational Catholic College in the Dominican tradition. Albertus' values- and liberal arts-based education is recognized by external rankings such as US News & World Report, Money, and The New York Times, and has been named a Top 10 Military Friendly School. For ten consecutive years, at least 95% of Albertus graduates have attained employment or gone on to graduate studies within six months of completing their degrees. The College has an enrollment of approximately 1,300 students across its traditional undergraduate, accelerated adult undergraduate, and graduate program levels. Proud to enroll a student body where nearly half of its undergraduate students receive Federal Pell Grants and are first-generation college goers, Albertus is known for its innovative curricular offerings, recently launching new Bachelor's degree programs in Nursing, including BSN and Connecticut's first LPN-to-BSN; General Health Sciences; Interdisciplinary Studies; and Public Health.
Among its graduate offerings is the State of Connecticut's only Master of Arts in Art Therapy and Counseling program, and it is just one of three schools to offer a Master of Science in Human Services. In 2025-26, Albertus is celebrating its historic 100th Anniversary and completing implementation of the Albertus 2025: Lighting the Way to a Second Century strategic plan, with a bold vision to "be a destination liberal arts-based college, distinguished in its interdisciplinary and experiential approach to education, rooted in Dominican values, that prepares students for lifelong civic engagement and success." To learn more, please visit albertus.edu.