ABSTRACT
In American higher education, the PhD has become the common denominator for academic appointments, the exception being the fine arts and practice positions in the subsidiary professions. The rationale for this has been that training under professors who have attained the pinnacle of scholarship is essential for the intellectual novice to be capable of contributing to the knowledge of a discipline. Despite the rapid growth in the number of doctoral programs from the 1980s to 1990s, doctoral student enrollment remained relatively constant from 1988 to 1999, hovering between 1,914 students in 1988 and 1,953 in 1999. Doctoral education is both costly and labor-intensive. On the coursework side, doctoral programs can seem like moneymakers, especially in programs operating under capitation funding. Concern about the quality of graduates is another problem arising from the rapid growth of doctoral programs in social work.
