Clinical DSW Program  

If you are a social worker with at least two years post-MSW experience and you have the desire and motivation to deepen your clinical knowledge, become a leader in clinical practice and teaching, and earn a doctorate from one of the world’s premier institutions of higher education, Penn’s Doctorate in Clinical Social Work is designed for you.

Penn’s Doctorate in Clinical Social Work (DSW) stands apart from all other social work doctorates. A professional practice degree housed in an Ivy league institution, Penn’s DSW is designed to prepare MSW-level social workers to be leaders in advanced clinical practice and university-level teaching.

The first and only professional practice doctorate of its kind in the country, Penn’s Clinical DSW offers these unique advantages:

Click here to read The Clinician, the Penn DSW Student-Run Publication

  • Intensive, accelerated programming that enables students to satisfy all degree requirements—coursework and dissertation—in just 3 years, with minimal career disruption.
  • Convenient class scheduling, with an innovative executive education format that makes the program accessible and manageable for busy professionals from Pennsylvania and surrounding states.
  • Cutting-edge courses focusing on the latest breakthroughs and techniques in clinical practice, clinical research, and teaching.
  • World class teaching faculty from Penn and across the country who are renowned leaders in their fields.

DSW Mission Statement

The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice is committed to the enhancement of clinical social work practice through the development of a program of advanced study. The goal of this program is to meet four areas of perceived need within the domain of social work:

  1. Enhance and develop new clinical social work knowledge;
  2. Enhance the quality of social work practitioners in order to meet arising challenges and new social problems in an environment that demands the ability to apply the newest and most comprehensive clinical knowledge;
  3. Provide a new cadre of doctoral-level practice professors who will be able to teach high-level practice courses and who will engage in clinical research; and
  4. Enhance the status of social work as a profession, as well as that of social work practitioners.