University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi PhD in Social Welfare program aims to train social work researchers, educators and advanced applied practitioners. Graduates will be able to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the profession in order to develop more effective interventions in social welfare. Graduates will be trained to assume leadership positions in teaching, research, and administration. The doctoral program’s overall learning outcome objectives are as follows: To become leaders in examining and addressing the needs of diverse, vulnerable and at-risk populations; to contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge about social work interventions as they relate to at-risk and vulnerable populations; to develop expertise of the broad knowledge base in social work and a specialized area of knowledge germane to their individual research interests; to be able to design data collection and analytic methods to effectively carry out quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research investigations; and to identify and incorporate one or more philosophies of science to guide their research.