The Faculty of Applied Social Sciences of the former Fachhochschule Wiesbaden was founded in winter semester 1974/75. Right from the start, the separate training in social work and social pedagogy was abandoned because it no longer met the needs of the work realities in the relevant professional fields. Thus the education offered initially consisted in a unified diploma degree program. To emphasize theoretical and practice-oriented learning goals, internship semesters were integrated into the program. The one year of work experience required for the official accreditation as social worker was conducted in two parts during the program. Thus, students who graduated with the diploma degree were also given their accreditation as certified social workers at the same time.

In 2006, the faculty adopted the new bachelor/master program structure. In summer semester 2006, the faculty launched its part-time distance-learning master's program in social work (MAPS), and in winter semester 2006/2007, the bachelor's program in social work and in summer semester 2008 the distance-learning bachelor's program in social work were added.