Moral beliefs guide interpersonal behaviour and responses to ethical situations and are an integral element of professionalism in relationship-based social care practice. This qualitative interview-based study focused on identifying the religious and moral beliefs of undergraduate social care students (N = 19) at the Finnish, non-religiously affiliated Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. The participating students' beliefs are discussed in reference to virtue ethics and efforts to determine positive moral standards for interpersonal relations. The results show that a majority of the students identified as spiritual but not traditionally religious, in accordance with the changing religious landscape in Finland and beyond. However, their moral beliefs were in some respects linked with certain prosocial dimensions of religions; for example, several students stated that they valued the Golden Rule in Christianity. Overall, the students considered benevolence to be the key virtue in character, attitude and action, believing a good person to be someone who respects other people and helps, not harms them. The students' views are in line with the ethical considerations that recognise social care as a profession that aims to protect and promote human dignity. The implications of this study are discussed in the context of developing future social care professionals' moral education. This study provides new evidence on undergraduate social care students' moral and religious beliefs in a Finnish context. To develop future social care professionals' moral and spiritual education, we must understand the beliefs they hold. Social care graduates will work with people who represent different religions and worldviews. To do so effectively, they must have knowledge of their own and their service users' moral perspectives, worldviews and religious beliefs. Nineteen students were interviewed for this study; following the interviews, an inductive content analysis was performed. Most of the students reported that they did not practice any religion but believed in some higher power. They perceived benevolence as the key virtue required to be a good person who respects and helps others. Many students also expressed their value of the Christian principle of treating others the way one wants to be treated. This study complements research on changing religious views in Finland and supports the idea that moral and religious beliefs are often interconnected. This research indicates that it is important to develop moral and spiritual education for students and help them understand their beliefs and how these beliefs guide their practice with social care service users. For example, they could study how to apply the virtue of benevolence in social care practice and consider how virtues could be interpreted within the framework of the ethics of care and the ethical dimensions of religions.
