The Postgraduate Program in Social Service at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (PPGSS/UFRN) was implemented on August 8, 2000, with the creation of the Master's degree in Social Service, in response to an existing demand and plans expansion of the UFRN Social Service Department. In 2016, the Doctorate in Social Service course was created.

The PPGSS mission is directed towards three central axes: the training of masters and doctors in Social Work; academic and professional qualifications for research, teaching and professional activity; and the interface with society through various mediations: production and socialization of science; development of critical knowledge; privileged focus on geographic specificities (Brazil – Northeast – Rio Grande do Norte); and the relationship with public organizations and social movements.

The program's general objective is to qualify social workers and professionals in related areas for the development of academic activities and, in particular, research, which lead them to the production of knowledge about the expressions of social issues, the State's responses through of social policies and professional practice in the socio-historical context of contemporary capitalism, considering the particularities of the Northeast Region, the contradictory movement of social reality, and the ethical-political commitment to social rights and the defense of the universality of social policies.

The Program's pedagogical proposal is guided by ethical and democratic principles and values, considering the numerous challenges arising from social inequality existing in Brazilian society and, in particular, in the Northeast Region, which demand an understanding of the role of the State in contemporary capitalism and the configurations of social policies, rights and Social Service, paying attention to Law 8,662/1993 that regulates this profession in Brazil, the Code of Professional Ethics, the postgraduate evaluation criteria, coordinated by CAPES and the academic requirements of UFRN .

CAPES concept: concept 4

The program's pedagogical proposal has a multidisciplinary character, covering as many teachers and students from Social Work as from related areas.

Ticket: Annual selection process, via notice.

Duration of the course:

  24 months, extendable for 0 6 months (Master’s degree)

  48 months, extendable for 12 months (Doctorate)

Curricular Integration Plan

Master's Course: paid workload of at least 300 hours, with 180 hours allocated to mandatory curricular components and 120 hours to elective curricular components. The student must also carry out mandatory academic activities; such as: participating in a program research group, taking qualification and proficiency exams in a foreign language, publishing 01 article in journals or 01 book chapter and defending the dissertation.

Doctoral Course: paid workload of at least 540 hours, with (330 hours) allocated to mandatory curricular components and (210 h) to elective curricular components. The student must also carry out mandatory academic activities; such as: participating in a program research group, being proficient in two foreign languages, studying thesis I and II, qualifying the thesis project, publishing 02 articles in periodicals or 01 article in periodicals and 01 book chapter and presenting the memorial and defend the thesis.

Concentration area: Sociability, Social Service and Social Policy

Research lines:

1 - State, Society, Social Policies and Rights.

Studies and research on the relations between State and Society, in the context of capitalism, in its socio-historical and contemporary determinations, a product of tensions between social classes, considering the struggles of social movements for rights and the configurations of social policies, their genesis , development, standards of social intervention, management and provision of social services.

2 - Social Service, Labor and Social Issues.

Studies and research on work in its ontological-historical dimensions, considering the contemporary changes in the capital-labor relationship that affect the deepening of social inequality, the expressions of the social issue, the development of management and social intervention modalities, in the work of the assistant Social. Political action and resistance strategies of the category from the perspective of affirming the ethical-political project. Identification and analysis of demands, as well as skills, theoretical-methodological, technical-operative and ethical-political competencies and challenges posed to the profession.

3 - Ethics, Gender, Culture and Diversity

Studies and research on culture, from a historical-critical perspective, considering the ethical-moral dimension of social life as a mediation between everyday life and societal projects, towards the construction of an emancipated society and the processes of resistance and struggle for the valorization of human diversity in its different expressions: gender, race-ethnicity, sexual orientation, generation, among others.