Course summary

The part-time Professional Doctorate in Social Work, DSW, builds on the established and very successful BA (Hons) Social Work and MA Social Work to provide a specialist route for social work or social policy professionals who wish to embark on doctoral study located within their own professional discipline. The programme of taught modules combined with the research component allows students to undertake study and research that is clearly relevant to their professional practice, will support them to contribute to professional knowledge in their field of practice and will enable their career development. A professional doctorate provides a rigorous programme of advanced study and research, equally rigorous to the purely research orientated PhD. The taught modules which occupy the first two years of the programme, provide opportunities to develop students’ skills and knowledge in key areas to facilitate career development, whilst the research component allows for development of skills in critical appraisal and the ability to develop the rationale, methodology and methods for research studies. The modules also allow development of other transferable skills such as project management, problem solving, information management and academic writing. The Social Work Doctorate utilizes the expertise of the academic team across the whole of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences as well as experts from the clinical field to support the student’s development, research and scholarship; many of whom may be nationally and internationally renowned researchers in their own field. Students may wish to exit at key points prior to completing the whole programme and in doing so may be awarded a MRes in Social Work. This design is intended to provide flexibility for professionals studying whilst working in high pressured health service roles. For further information and to apply: https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/postgraduateresearch/researchareas/socialworkdsw/**