Best PhD in Nursing Programs in Iowa, Ranked (2026)
Iowa awards 59 nursing doctorates a year. It has one nursing PhD program. Both are true at once, and the second is the number that matters if research is what you're after, because the list of PhD in nursing programs in Iowa starts and ends with the University of Iowa in Iowa City. The state's doctoral output in nursing is bigger than its PhD pipeline. If you want the degree that trains you to design studies and write grants, you're applying to one school, and it's in Iowa City.
Last updated
Programs ranked
1
Universities
1
Nursing faculty median
$77,360
Faculty jobs in IA
770
How We Ranked the Best PhD in Nursing Programs in Iowa
Campus and online programs are scored on separate models, because they compete on different
things, and this page lists both together with each one's score from its own model. Research
funding comes from NIH RePORTER, doctoral scale from federal IPEDS completions, and the
curriculum, funding and deadline figures from each school's own pages.
The full scoring model is here.
Iowa's funding and Iowa's workload are the same thing. The money arrives as a 50% graduate assistantship, so tuition, half your fees and a nine-month stipend are paid for by twenty hours a week on a faculty research team.
Where it wins. Thirteen active NINR awards worth $3.3 million feed a program that graduates two people a year, which is a thick supply of live projects per student. Methods is the heaviest block in the curriculum at 22 semester hours out of 72.
What you give up. It's Iowa City in person, which for the only nursing PhD in the state means relocating or a long commute. You also need an upper-level statistics course taken within five years of applying, and two graduates a year is a thin cohort.
Funding. "Students admitted to the program may be eligible for tuition coverage and 9-month stipends"; funded students hold a 50% graduate assistantship covering tuition, half of fees and a monthly stipend, and internal grant funding is available for dissertation projects.
Research. symptom science, socio-economic factors that influence disease risk, new methods of patient support, accessibility to life saving medications.
What Nursing Faculty and Nurse Researchers Earn in Iowa
Nursing instructors in Iowa earn a median of $77,360, about $2,890 under the national median of $80,250. Registered nurses in the state earn $78,630, so the pay cut for teaching is roughly $1,270, which sounds like good news until you see why. Iowa RN pay runs $18,920 below the national RN median of $97,550, so the gap is small because both sides are low. The faculty spread is wide: $49,450 at the tenth percentile, $104,820 at the ninetieth. About 770 people hold instructor jobs in the state, so the median rests on a reasonably solid base.
Can You Do the University of Iowa Nursing PhD Part Time or Online?
No. The University of Iowa runs its nursing PhD on campus and full time. There's no online version and no part-time track, so the honest version is that you move to Iowa City for the degree, or you apply somewhere else.
The coursework runs about 72 credits. Entry is open straight from a BSN, and the program has dropped the GRE, which removes one barrier while leaving the bigger one in place. Full-time doctoral study means your income for those years is whatever the program and your assistantship provide, and that's the part worth pinning down in writing before you accept a seat.
What you get for the relocation is a research base with $3.3 million in NIH nursing research awards behind it from FY2021 through FY2025. That money funds the studies you'd be working on. In your first conversation with a potential advisor, ask which grants are live, how long they run, and whether any of them end before you'd finish.
Questions About Nursing PhD Programs in Iowa
How many PhD in nursing programs are there in Iowa?
1, at 1 university. 1 is campus-based and 0 run online.
Does the University of Iowa nursing PhD require the GRE?
No. Iowa's nursing PhD has dropped the GRE requirement, so the test isn't something you have to plan your application around.
How many credits is the University of Iowa nursing PhD?
About 72 credits, taken on campus in Iowa City. There's no part-time track, so plan on full-time study for the duration.
What do nursing professors earn in Iowa?
Postsecondary nursing instructors in Iowa earn a $77,360 median. The bottom 10% earn $49,450 and the top 10% clear $104,820, across 770 jobs in the state. The national median is $80,250.
Can you do a nursing PhD in Iowa without moving?
Every nursing PhD program in Iowa is campus-based, so studying in state means commuting or moving. The alternative is an online program based elsewhere, and those are ranked here.