Social work and social care professional doctorates in the UK: the current landscape and a research agenda

The first aim of this paper is to provide an updated overview of social work and social care professional doctorates in the UK. This is done in three different ways. Firstly, a structured search of recent published papers and reports showed there to be very little published UK research about the nature of these doctorates or the experience of those involved. Secondly, a systematic Internet search found 21 UK universities offering professional doctorates that specifically cover social work or social care in 2025. Thirdly, a proof-of-concept bibliometric analysis of Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global gave some indication of the frequency of all doctoral completions (with methodological caveats), with 14% of all social work doctorates being coded as professional doctorates and 284 completions over 30 years. The paper’s second aim is to outline a research agenda, to extend and deepen the evidence base in future and assess what contribution professional doctorates are making to knowledge for practice in the social work and social care field. The paper concludes with this agenda.