One school’s experience in reconceptualizing part-time doctoral education in social work

This article describes the rationale, implementation, and assessment of a summer-study format, part-time doctoral program that was designed to address the shortcomings of traditional part-time doctoral education in social welfare. Findings of a comparative analysis between 67 full-time and 52 part-time doctoral students suggest that the program offers a number of significant advantages over traditional part-time education. There were no statistically significant differences between summer-study and full-time students in Graduate Record Examination and Miller Analogies Test scores, in rates of graduation, or in length of time to complete the degree. Educational limitations of the program for summer-study students as compared to full-time students are presented.