The state of doctoral social work education in Canada

ABSTRACT

Doctoral education in social work is critical in nurturing the stewards of the discipline. Universities across Canada, and elsewhere, are increasing admissions for bachelor and master of social work programs. Consequently, doctoral social work programs are expanding to educate and train new social work faculty. Extant literature on doctoral social work education is predominantly American. There are fourteen Canadian doctoral social work programs, yet no study has observed the state of these programs. Using two data sources, this article provides a snapshot of PhD social work student experiences in 2019–2020. The analysis of all doctoral social work students (n = 157) from the 2019 Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey (CGPSS) found that: a) the overall quality of social work PhD programs in Canada was rated by students as moderate; and b) financial obstacles may be an undue barrier to academic success. Furthermore, the analysis of an online survey of Canadian social work PhD students (n = 69) regarding their experience applying for doctoral fellowships and scholarships found that workshops significantly facilitated scholarship success, and that other institutional preparation activities were identified as valuable. These findings illuminate the current state of doctoral social work education in Canada with implications for research and education.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctoral
• PhD
• fellowships
• scholarships
• Canada

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Jenny Hui, Maria Al-Raes, Maria Staszkiewicz, and Milena Aitken for assistance with this study. Permission to access and use the national Canadian Graduate and Professional Student Survey (CGPSS) dataset was granted by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) national CGPSS Steering Committee. This does not constitute an endorsement by CAGS or members of the Committee. This article is dedicated to the memory of Professor Marion Bogo.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).