Florida PhD in Social Work & DSW

Social work is a field that constantly changes with the pressures that real people feel every day. Resources, attitudes, environment, and culture are constantly shifting. Old problems are resolved, new ones emerge.

The one constant is that social workers are always there to help serve Floridians in need.

But defining those needs and figuring out how to best meet the challenges isn’t easy. For the average social worker out in the barrios or helping elderly residents in The Villages, there isn’t time or energy to explore the big picture.

When high-impact organizations like the Jewish Community Services of South Florida look for top leadership talent, they want people with the most advanced degrees in the field.

Just as important, their training isn’t aimed at exploring those trends in a systematic and historically-informed way. MSW programs are practical and hands-on, designed to train essential skills for delivering change today.

For deeper, more exploratory and more informed thoughts on how Florida social work must evolve, you’ll need to take the next step: a PhD in Social Work or Doctor of Social Work degree.

What Are PhD or Doctor of Social Work Degrees in Florida Meant To Offer?

A PhD, or Doctor of Philosophy, is traditionally the highest level of university degree you can attain in any particular field of academic study. They are the level you wind up at when you aim to be a top thinker, investigator, and instructor of other professionals in that field.

This is equally true for social work. A PhD in Social Work in Florida equips graduates to perform original research, develop new theoretical approaches to helping people, and to instruct the next generation of Florida’s social workers in the craft.

Yet social work remains an intensely hands-on field, with a call for expertise even at the top levels. So the highest degree you can achieve in the field has been split in two. For individuals who want to focus on their clinical expertise and leadership skills, the Doctor of Social Work degree is also available.

A DSW is just as advanced as a PhD, but comes with training that is more oriented toward practical rather than theoretical innovation. These are designed for advanced clinical practitioners, supervisors, and other hands-on micro-level social workers. They come with research and theory, but also deal directly with real-world issues in assessment and treatment.

Both kinds of programs turn out the absolute elite of Florida social workers. As a practical matter, you can earn either type of doctoral credential and become qualified for top jobs in either practice or academia.

Finding a Social Work PhD Program in Florida Is Easy… Getting Into One is a Bit More Challenging

The admissions process to doctoral programs in social work is far more challenging than it is for a master’s program. You’re competing against top candidates for a very limited number of positions.

Just 2% of Florida’s child, family, and school social workers and 2% of those working in healthcare held doctoral degrees as of 2023. Among Florida’s mental health and substance abuse social workers, 5% hold a DSW or PhD.

Some programs may have only three to ten students pursuing degrees at any given time.

For the most part, these will be people who have already not only earned an MSW, but have become licensed clinical social workers or certified master social workers as well. They have years of on-the-job experience in social work, and bring their own perspectives and knowledge to the table with them.

Some Florida schools of social work have both DSW and PhD programs available.

Council of Social Work Education (CSWE)-accreditation stops with MSW programs, but schools that hold that accreditation can also be relied on for top flight doctoral programs with the same faculty and resources. In Florida, that gives you five schools to consider for your doctorate:

Ana G. Mendez University | AGM University

Liberal Arts Division
Private University

PhD Social Work in Administration of Social Programs and Social Policy (on-campus, online)

Also Offers:

Florida Atlantic University

Phyllis and Harvey Sandler School of Social Work
Public University

DSW (on-campus)

Also Offers:

Child Welfare Certificate, Healthy Aging Certificate, Addictions Certificate

Florida International University

Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, School of Social Work
Public University

PhD in Social Welfare (on-campus)

Also Offers:

BSW
MSW
MSW-JD
MSW-MPH
Minor in Social Welfare
Certificate in Child Welfare Services
Graduate Certificate in Addictions
Graduate Certificate in Child Welfare
Graduate Certificate in Social Work Practice for the Elderly
Post-MSW Graduate Certificate in Clinical Practice

Florida State University

College of Social Work
Public University

PhD in Research Methods and Teaching (on-campus, online)

Clinical Social Work, Social Leadership

Also Offers:

BSW
MSW in Clinical Social Work
MSW in Social Leadership
Graduate Certificate in Child Welfare Practice
Graduate Certificate in Gerontology
Graduate Certificate LEAD in Social Work

University of South Florida

College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, School of Social Work
Public University

PhD in Social Work (on-campus, online)

Also Offers:

You’ll commonly have to submit several letters of recommendation, have an MSW or a BSW with a high GPA, file a statement of interest, and in some cases even pass a candidacy exam to earn your place.

On top of the competition, the alignment of your personal goals in doctoral studies and those of the faculty are extremely important at this level. The process can be very collaborative, which means that you and your professors need to be on the same track.

Doctoral Studies in Social Work Will Challenge You to Bring New Ideas to Help Florida Thrive

The studies in doctoral degrees in social work are completely different from any other social work studies you have completed.

Because they are tailored to your own learning objectives and interests, it’s possible to tailor PhD programs to just about any specialty that you and your advisor can agree on.

A DSW typically takes three years to complete; a PhD may extend to four years or more.

You’ll spend much of your time in small, seminar-style classes, directly engaged with professors and graduate students. The professors typically engage in less formal instruction than collaborative guidance, helping students explore their own thoughts and discoveries.

How a Florida State University Professor Used Personal Trauma to Inspire a Generation of Social Workers

Florida’s opportunities and climate draw people from all over the country, and it’s no different with professors in doctoral social work programs. We’re just lucky that we got Charles Ray Figley at Florida State University in that role for nearly two decades.

Reaching back as far as his service in Vietnam, Figley always had a concern for the overlooked and uncared-for. As a Marine corporal stationed in Da Nang, in his spare time Figley organized an effort through his former high school in the U.S. to collect and ship school and hygiene supplies to a Catholic orphanage nearby.

That experience both showed him the depths of trauma and his own ability to address it. Returning to the States, he studied psychology, human development, and stress disorders coming from war, disasters, and violence. He became a resource for families of hostages, hurricane victims, and families as a full professor at FSU’s School of Social Work. And he headed up what is today the nationally-respected Institute for Trauma and Resilience Studies, exploring solutions to impacts of family violence and human trafficking among other sources of trauma.

Although Professor Figley has since been poached by Tulane, which knows talent when they see it, he’s made a lasting mark on a generation of social work educators in Florida.

The first year of doctoral studies helps you develop the tools and skillsets to do just that. You may have classes on your schedule such as:

Introduction to Scholarly Writing
Foundations in Research Methods
Statistics in Applied Social Research
Linear Modeling in Social Work Research
Secondary Data Analysis
Integrating Qualitative Research into Social Work Practice and Policy Decision-Making

Other foundational courses may take you deep into concepts like neurobiology or the theoretical foundations of trauma and resilience. Particularly in PhD programs, which often include some teaching responsibilities, you may get some training in academic instruction to prepare.

What Kind of Specializations Can You Find in Florida’s Doctoral Social Work Degrees?

It’s true that every PhD program represents its own sort of specialization, shaped by the partnership of the student and their advisors and instructors. But that doesn’t mean that every school offers the same specialization opportunities.

Some Florida schools do have programs that are focused on particular areas of social work research or practice, such as Trauma-Informed Leadership and Practice, Societal Change and Innovation, or Research Methods and Teaching.

On the other hand, this sort of school-by-school specialization is a natural outgrowth of the intensity and personal nature of doctoral studies. By the nature of academic research, professors who specialize in certain fields will attract students interested in the same subjects; over time, the school will develop tremendous resources and institutional knowledge in those areas.

A quick look at the College of Social Work faculty at PhD program schools like FSU or USF shows research looking into residential youth care, gerontology, health disparities, human rights, international social work and child welfare. Students line up those interests with subjects like researching the effects of the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program or looking into challenges in accessing healthcare and treatment for substance use disorders among the state’s immigrant population.

You’ll want to look for universities with a similar track record of expertise and current research efforts that lean in the direction you hope to specialize in.

Meeting the Final Challenge in Earning a PhD With Your Dissertation or Capstone Project

The traditional end-point of a doctoral degree is the doctoral dissertation: a tightly-written distillation of a formal research program on your area of investigation, incorporating your findings and original thinking on a topic of professional interest within the field. This can run to hundreds of pages and must be formally defended before and approved by a dissertation committee made up of professionals and instructors who pull no punches in their evaluation.

The dissertation is still the most common requirement in PhD programs. At some schools, however, and particularly in DSW studies, it’s also becoming common to offer a capstone project option instead.

A capstone is often more practical and less theoretical in nature. It will involve some level of research and some sort of written report, but they look toward real-world challenges and designs. You may come up with proposals for new programs, new clinical interventions to be tested, or policy ideas you actually pitch to government agencies.

Just a couple of recent examples of capstones used by Florida social work doctoral candidates include:

Are Online Social Work PhD Programs the Right Answer for Your Education?

Florida social work schools are leading the nation in offering PhD and DSW online studies.

While the intensive and personal nature of doctoral studies usually means you will have some on-campus intensive classes or in person meetings with your advisors, the bulk of your credits may be completed online.

This is a great fit for the typical PhD candidate, who is likely to be well-established professionally and personally in their community. You probably don’t want to pull up roots in Tallahassee and relocate to Tampa for three or four years to complete a doctorate. With online classes, you don’t have to.

You can also keep your day job, using asynchronous class presentations to shift your studies to moments in your day when you have the time to view them. On your lunch hour or while you’re waiting for the kids to finish up soccer practice, anywhere with internet can be your classroom at any hour.

Finally, with the stiff competition for PhD slots, the option to explore any school, anywhere really opens up the chances you’ll find a good fit for your ideas and interests.

DSW and PhD Graduates Are Destined for the Most Influential Roles in Social Work Leadership in Florida

The natural habitat of PhD graduates from Florida social work schools is those schools themselves: qualified instructors and researchers are the group needed to train new generations of social workers in the latest techniques and areas of need. From the University of Florida to Florida Atlantic to the University of North Florida, professorships are what a lot of PhD grads are aiming for.

DSW grads may also end up in research or academic roles, but their training will prepare them best for leadership roles in active clinical or policy organizations.

A doctorate is the preferred educational credential for the human services manager position heading up Broward County’s Child Protection Team.

Of course, for many doctoral social work students, the degree is only part of what is probably an already active career. You may already be climbing the path to human services leadership roles. A DSW may just be the kind of boost you need to improve your effectiveness in a role or organization you are already part of.

There’s no firm line in the sand between jobs for PhD and DSW graduates. A PhD in Social Work can just as easily lead to advanced clinical leadership roles; a DSW can put you in a classroom or think-tank, handling cutting edge research projects.

Either way, you’ll come out of these programs prepared to take on whatever new challenges the future holds for society. With practice in developing evidence, thinking through implications, and coordinating resources in response, you’ll be the best that Florida has to offer to help out in any scenario.