PhD in Social Work and Social Welfare

The goals of the University of Michigan School of Social Work’s PhD in Social Work and Social Welfare are to:

• Prepare the future social work professoriate with a specific focus in the solution of social problems through rigorous scientific methodological and integrative, transdisciplinary social science inquiry.
• To prepare leaders of the social work profession with expertise in social policy and social intervention that is based in rigorous scientific methods and theoretical and empirical inquiry.

The PhD program in Social Work and Social Welfare is focused on developing scholars who are transdisciplinary experts (i.e., masters of a broad array of applicable methods not in a specific to a social science but drawing from an array of disciplines) with the education and training to understand, develop, and evaluate social interventions, including service systems and policies.  The PhD Program in Social Work and Social Welfare applies appropriate transdisciplinary perspectives to focus specifically on problems at the heart of social work: to promote human adaptation, social change, and social justice. The distinctive elements of the PhD program in Social Work and Social Welfare are its transdisciplinary perspective and its greater emphasis on the science of multi-level individual and social change and social justice in a diverse and pluralistic societal context.

The PhD program in Social work and Social Welfare trains students to be able to create and evaluate interventions designed to solve societal problems. As social work is an applied profession, the PhD program in Social Work and Social Welfare prepares students to discover new methods for helping people and society overcome the problems they face. Coursework aligns with this focus and the preliminary examination required for candidacy asks students to synthesize research on practice interventions in their area of research, critique it, identify gaps, and make suggestions on addressing these gaps. 

Beginning in Fall 2024, the program will admit five (5) Social Work and Social Welfare PhD students to start in the Fall of 2025. 

Please note that applicants can apply to both the doctoral program in Social Work and Social Welfare and the SSW Joint Doctoral program in Social Work and Social Science but must complete specific applications for each program. Students are encouraged to thoroughly review materials about both PhD program options to ensure alignment between the program(s) and their research interests and scholarly goals.