PhD in Social Work

Our Mission

The University of South Carolina is a premier setting to advance social well-being and social justice through social work scholarship. Our dynamic approach to doctoral education will prepare you for leadership in transdisciplinary community-engaged research and education. We invite you to join us in this mission.

Our College

Our college enjoys a well-earned reputation in dynamic teaching, research, and service in collaboration with diverse people of South Carolina, the nation, and international communities. We are home of the Center for Child and Family Studies, the I. DeQuincey Newman Institute for Peace and Social Change, and the South Carolina Center for Gerontology. And we are an academic unit in the University’s much-heralded Health Sciences Division, along with medicine, public health, nursing, and pharmacy.

Our University

The University of South Carolina spans eight campuses, with Columbia as the hub. The Carnegie Foundation recently designated our University as a “very high research” institution, a designation granted to only 62 public institutions. Our University has achieved a dramatic increase in extramural funding in the past five years, especially from the National Institutes of Health.

Our Signature Ph.D. Program

Transdisciplinary community-engaged scholarship is our “signatures” in social work doctoral education. Our Ph.D. program will prepare you to:

• Engage scholars, policy makers, agency leaders, practitioners, and citizens in mutually beneficial research and educational partnerships of significance
• Incorporate socioeconomic, political, historical, and global factors into contextual analyses of policy and organizational responses to community needs
• Apply the full range of quantitative and qualitative research methods in the discovery and dissemination of knowledge across diverse disciplines and community settings
• Translate and blend scientific knowledge in universities with experiential knowledge in communities to promote the well-being of vulnerable populations
• Teach and integrate such knowledge from a transdisciplinary, community-engaged perspective

Your Opportunity for Mentorship and Research

Your opportunities for mentorship in transdisciplinary, community-engaged research are incredibly diverse at the University of South Carolina. All social work students will participate in such research at the beginning of their doctoral studies.

Our college has close affiliations with the Institute for Families in Society, Institute for Partnership to Eliminate Health Disparities, Center for Older Adult Independence, Center for African-American Studies, Center for Prevention Research, Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies and Center for Women’s Studies.

Our external partnerships extend to the Institute of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina, Palmetto Health, Greenville Hospital System, and virtually every health and social service agency in the state. Our international affiliations are especially strong in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Faculty, researchers, and experts working in collaboration with the college offer numerous opportunities for doctoral students to participate in transdisciplinary, community-engaged research. Specialty areas include:

Children and Families:

• Adoptions and Foster Care
• Adolescents
• Child Abuse and Neglect
• Domestic Violence
• Early Childhood Development
• Family Relations
• Fatherhood
• Incarcerated Men and Women
• Military Families and Veterans
• School-Based Services

Health:

• Cancer
• Disaster Preparedness
• Health Disparities
• HIV/AIDS
• Mental Health
• Obesity
• Physical Disabilities
• Professional Health
• Spirituality
• Substance Abuse

Older Adults:

• Alzheimer’s/Dementia
• Chronic Disease Management
• Caregiver Support
• Community-Based Services
• Grief and Loss
• Hospital-to-Community Transitions
• Hospice
• Older Adult Independence
• Residential and Long-Term Care
• “Smart Home” Technologies

Communities

• “Built” Environments
• Community Building
• Diversity
• Housing
• Latino Immigration
• Nonprofit Management
• Poverty
•  Social Capital
• Social Justice
• Transnational Social Welfare

Your Opportunities for Support

We take great pride in our doctoral students, providing individualized attention and finding resources for them to succeed. With few exceptions, students who enroll and begin our doctoral program actually finish.

All doctoral students receive financial support with either through research assistantships, teaching assistantships, tuition reductions and supplements, or fellowships. Highly competitive funding packages are available for some students for up to three years.

Our Admissions Requirements

All applicants must have a master’s degree in social work before entering our doctoral program. Commitment to a research and teaching career in social work is expected of all students. A grade-point average of 3.50 or higher is required. Successful applicants have competitive scores on the GRE or MAT.