DSW Programs in Leadership and Social Work Education

What a DSW Leadership Program Teaches

A leadership DSW is a practice doctorate for social workers who manage people, budgets and programs, or who want to teach the next generation of practitioners. It doesn’t train you to run studies for a research career. It trains you to diagnose problems in an agency or a community, test a fix and show whether it worked.

Of the 38 DSW programs verified in October 2026, 27 list leadership, administration or teaching as a focus. That set spans 17 states. Within it, 24 programs name leadership or administration and 17 name teaching, so many let you combine the two.

The focus names tell you what each school means by leadership:

• Agency administration: the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign builds its whole DSW around organizational administration and leadership. Walden University offers Impact Leadership in Social Work Administration, and the University of Kentucky offers Administrative Leadership.
• Community and rights-based leadership: Spalding University runs a DSW in Leadership in Community Practices. Monmouth University runs a DSW in Human Rights Leadership with a macro practice focus.
• Leadership tracks inside a broader DSW: the University of Alabama pairs an Organizational Leadership Track with a clinical track. Simmons University offers Inclusive Leadership next to clinical and teaching options.
• Teaching: Southern Connecticut State University lists university teaching with leadership and management. Kutztown and Millersville both list leadership and teaching. Long Island University offers Teaching in the Academy.

If your work is mostly direct practice and supervision, the clinical DSW programs page is the better fit.

How DSW Leadership Programs Compare on Cost, Length and Format

Fifteen programs in this set publish enough to estimate tuition. The median estimate is $43,070, and per-credit rates run from $440 to $1,787. Estimated tuition here means the published per-credit rate times credits, before fees.

Program	Format	Credits	Length	Estimated tuition	CSWE status
University of Alabama	Online with June residencies	45 credits	2 years of coursework plus a capstone year	$19,800
University of Kentucky	Online, one Residency Week	42 credits	2-3 years	$33,180	Candidacy
Millersville University	Online, August weekend residency	48 credits	3 years, part time	$33,312
Barry University	Online, weekly live class	50 credits	3 years	$35,000
Kutztown University	Online, weekend residencies each term	48 credits		$36,864
University of Kansas	Online, live classes every other Saturday	42 credits	2 years full time; 3-4 part time	$41,790
Spalding University	Online, Saturday virtual classes	50 credits	2 years	$42,500
Walden University	Online, one virtual residency	59 quarter credits	21 months to 8 years	$43,070	Accredited
Southern Connecticut State	Hybrid, five-day summer residency	48 credits	3 years, part time	$48,096
University of Maryland	On campus one weekend a month	60 credits	3 years	$58,500	Pre-Candidacy
University of St Thomas	Online, August orientation	45 credits	3 years	$58,995	Candidacy
Simmons University	Online	48 credits	2-3 years	$60,720
Adelphi University	Hybrid, monthly Manhattan classes	54 credits	3 years, part time	$67,500	Pre-Candidacy

Two rows deserve a note. Kutztown’s $768 per credit is the Pennsylvania resident rate and includes a $40 technology fee; non-residents pay $1,145. Maryland’s $975 is an estimated in-state rate, and out-of-state students pay $1,330. Run your own numbers in the DSW cost calculator.

Online, Low-Residency or on Campus

Twenty-two of the 27 programs are online, four are hybrid and three meet on campus. “Online” rarely means you never travel or never log in at a set time. Read the residency line before you apply.

• No set meetings at all: UT Arlington says its coming DSW has no residency, no required weekly meetings and no campus visits.
• Virtual-only residencies: Walden holds one virtual residency. Kentucky has one synchronous Residency Week with an asynchronous alternative.
• Short campus trips: Alabama requires 4 days on campus in the first June and 5 days in the second. Barry holds a one-time, 2-day hybrid event in the second year in Miami Shores. St Thomas starts with a 2.5-day orientation in St. Paul.
• Annual residencies: Monmouth runs a one-week summer residency each year. Millersville holds an in-person weekend in August plus two virtual residencies. Kutztown meets in person for a weekend at the start of each term.
• Regular campus time: Maryland meets on its Baltimore campus one weekend a month, Friday through Sunday. Adelphi holds monthly classes at its Manhattan Center.

Weekly live sessions matter as much as travel if you run an agency. Barry holds a mandatory synchronous class on Wednesday evenings, and Kansas meets live every other Saturday. Spalding also uses Saturday virtual classes.

Capstone or Dissertation

Twenty-two programs in this set end in a capstone or applied project, which fits a leadership degree: you study a real problem in your own organization and test a response. A few still ask for a dissertation.

• Applied capstones: Southern Connecticut pairs a 240-hour self-designed externship with a capstone. Adelphi’s yearlong capstone can be a written paper or a program proposal with a grant application, which is close to what agency directors write every year. Monmouth’s Transformative Human Rights Leadership Project ends in a project exposition.
• Publishable work: Alabama accepts an intervention project, a practice-focused thesis or a first-authored peer-reviewed manuscript. Barry’s capstone is a manuscript defended before a committee and submitted to a journal.
• Dissertations: Millersville ends with an original research project and a dissertation defense. Kutztown pairs a dissertation with Praxis I and II leadership or teaching projects. St Thomas uses a banded dissertation of three linked works.

If you want to teach, a publishable capstone or dissertation gives you a writing record. If you want to lead an agency, a capstone built around a program you run pays off sooner.

Admission Requirements: Experience, License and GRE

Every program wants an MSW, almost always from a CSWE-accredited school. The real filter is post-MSW experience.

Program	Post-MSW experience	License	Tests
University of Illinois	2 years
Spalding University	2 years; 3.3 MSW GPA
University of Kentucky	2 years		No GRE
Walden University	2 years		No test scores
University of Alabama	3 years	Clinical track only	No GRE
University of Kansas	3 years, clinical or macro	Preferred, not required
Morgan State University	3 years	Clinical license preferred	No GRE
Monmouth University	3-5 years
Loma Linda University	4 years	Clinical license or progress toward one required

Ten programs in the set state no GRE requirement, and none in it requires one. Two schools are flexible on the degree itself. California Baptist accepts related master’s degrees such as the MPA, MPH and MPP. Monmouth admits holders of other social science master’s degrees after four core MSW courses. That opens the door for nonprofit managers who came up through public administration. The DSW requirements guide covers GPA floors and application materials across all 38 programs.

CSWE Status of Leadership DSW Programs

CSWE piloted accreditation for practice doctorates from 2021 to 2025 and began taking applications in August 2025, under standards that took effect August 1, 2025. That’s why so few DSWs are accredited yet. A program outside the list may simply not have gone through the process.

In this set:

• Accredited: Walden University, Penn and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
• Candidacy: Loma Linda, Kentucky, St Thomas, Memphis and Walla Walla.
• Pre-candidacy: Maryland and Adelphi.

Candidacy means a program is working toward accreditation, not that it has it. The full list sits on the CSWE-accredited DSW programs page, checked against the CSWE directory.

What a Leadership DSW Leads to

Be clear on what the degree does and doesn’t do for you. Senior leadership roles don’t require a doctorate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says social and community service managers typically need a bachelor’s degree, with some positions requiring a master’s, and their median pay was $80,390 in May 2025. A DSW is a way to stand out for executive roles, lead evaluation and quality work, or move into consulting and policy.

Teaching is the other common path. BLS says faculty at four-year colleges typically need a PhD or other doctorate. Many schools hire DSW graduates to teach practice courses and run field education, while tenure-track research jobs lean toward the PhD. If a research faculty career is your goal, read DSW vs PhD in social work before you commit. The DSW careers guide covers both routes in more depth.

Programs Starting Later

Three leadership-focused DSWs are not admitting a class yet:

• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: its first cohort starts in 2027-28. The 48 credits run as 12 eight-week modules over two and a half years of coursework plus a capstone semester.
• UT Arlington: first cohorts start in spring and summer 2027. It asks for 45 credit hours over three years, needs three or more years of post-MSW practice, and requires no license and no GRE.
• University of Nebraska at Omaha: the DSW is listed in the catalog with a required weekly synchronous component, and the school says admission details are coming soon.

How to Choose a DSW Leadership Program

Use the facts above to narrow 27 programs to two or three:

• Match the focus to your job. If you run programs, look at Illinois, Spalding, Walden’s administration track or Kentucky’s Administrative Leadership. If you want to teach, look at Southern Connecticut, Kutztown, Millersville or Simmons.
• Price the whole program. Estimates run from $19,800 at Alabama to $67,500 at Adelphi. Add fees: Southern Connecticut charges a $468 per credit General University Fee on top of its $1,002 tuition rate.
• Count your travel days. Alabama’s 4 and 5 campus days in two Junes are a different commitment from Maryland’s monthly weekends in Baltimore.
• Check the weekly schedule. Barry’s Wednesday-evening class and Kansas’s alternate Saturdays recur for years.
• Confirm your experience counts. Most programs want two or three years after the MSW. Monmouth asks for three to five and Loma Linda for four.
• Weigh CSWE status for what it is. Three programs here are accredited and seven are in the process. Since accreditation opened only in 2025, candidacy is a normal stage, not a warning sign.
• Look for funding. Millersville offers graduate assistantships: full-time GAs earn a $6,000 annual stipend and 18 credits of tuition waiver.

Not sure a practice doctorate is right at all? The DSW or PhD quiz sorts your goals in a few questions, and the program matcher filters all 38 DSWs by format, budget and focus. The full set lives on the DSW programs page.