The Swedish Research School in Social Work (RSSW) was initiated in 2008, as collaboration between all Swedish universities with post-graduate education in Social Work. The intention was to assemble a broader basis for subject specific postgraduate courses, to strengthen the identity of Social Work as a postgraduate subject and to work for an international collaboration.

This report describes the PhD students in social work and their experience of attending RSSW-courses. The report addresses how support, such as tutoring, affect participation in RSSW-courses and also highlights various aspects of the future, as the doctoral students’ future career paths.

Results of the study reveal that tutoring situation, gender, and age, among other things, affect the participation in and experience of RSSW. The study also shows that the subject orientations and course needs of doctoral students in Social Work are broad and varying. It is further a large part of the doctoral student group who would consider a future career outside the academy, which raises the question of where the scientific knowledge in the long run end up and what that means for the development of Social Work as a subject.