Developing learning beyond the campus: increasing vocationalism and declining pedagogy? Introduction 109; The process of learning off-campus 110; Conceptual and explanatory issues 111; Social policy fieldwork 112;

Social policy and social work share an interwoven history of extra-mural curriculum work, i.e. learning that takes place beyond the classroom, is external to the campus and is located in real-world settings that provide students with diverse ‘sites for learning’. During the last third of the twentieth century, social policy has increasingly prioritized the establishment of an academic identity and retreated from the field, while social work has embraced ‘practice’ as a vehicle to achieve professional competence. Developments in both disciplines have been in response to: national demands for increased ‘relevance’ to real world issues; the widening participation agenda; teaching quality assessments; and research selectivity exercises. Learning beyond the campus has been both a victor and victim of these national trends. In this chapter we begin by considering some practical and conceptual issues common to both social policy and social work, then review the most significant trends in each discipline. While the term ‘off-campus’ can be taken to mean any form of learning that is not part of the specified curriculum or that is delivered outside formal classes such as distance or e-learning, in this chapter our concern is with practice learning that is part of a formal curriculum.