ABSTRACT
Over the past 95 years, doctoral social work education has grown from infancy to adulthood. Beginning with programs at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Chicago in 1920, the enterprise grew slowly at the beginning, with merely eight programs in place 30 years later. Today, in 2015, there are more than 2,500 students enrolled in more than 80 recognized programs in the United States and Canada, with many more present abroad and emerging in developing nations across the globe (Council on Social Work Education [CSWE], 2013; Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work [GADE], 2015; Lubben, 2008). The Great Depression surely slowed the growth of programs during the 1930s, along with World War
II and the economic recovery of the 1940s, as well as the unanticipated economic impact of the Korean Conflict in the early 1950s. However, a sudden surge in doctoral programs took place in the 1960s and 1970s, with the emergence of President Kennedy’s and President Johnson’s innovative social programs. Indeed, 20 new social work doctoral programs were initiated between 1965 and 1975 (Van Scoy, 1978).
