MSc Global Development
London, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 25,320 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 12,220 per year
Introduction
The MSc Global Development programme provides a solid interdisciplinary social science formation in development theory and practice and develops students’ capacities for independent and critical analysis.
Development Studies is a dynamic field concerned with processes of change in the South —social and economic, political and cultural — and the major policy challenges they present to efforts to overcome poverty and insecurity.
Highlights
- The meanings of development and the challenges it faces
- Neoliberalism and its critiques
- Industrialisation, labour and capital
- State failure, poverty and insecurity
- Gender, race and class analysis
- NGOs, civil society and social movements
- Development organisations and development practice
- Globalisation, commodity chains and trade
- Agrarian change, peasantry and land
Why study MSc Global Development at SOAS?
- SOAS is ranked 3rd in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings 2024)
- You will have the opportunity to take work placements as part of your degree, and we offer internships in the department and in partner organisations. This year MSc students were offered placements in the International Organisation for Migration, the London International Development Centre and international NGOs
- Get a placement in a partner organisation working in international development with our International Development Placement module (virtual delivery)
The MSc programme’s emphasis on transferable analytical skills has been of great benefit to the many graduates who have returned to, or taken up, professional careers in development in international organisations, government agencies and non-government organisations.
Duration
1 year full-time or part-time
Admissions
Curriculum
Students must take 180 credits per year comprised of 120 taught credits (including core, compulsory and optional modules) and a 60-credit dissertation.
Open modules: Students can choose up to 30 credits from other Departments as open options.
Core Module
- Dissertation in Development Studies
Compulsory Modules
- Theory, Policy and Practice of Development
- Political Economy of Development
Guided Modules
- Civil Society, Social Movements and the Development Process
- Gender and Development
- Development Practice
- Issues in Forced Migration
- Fundamentals of Research Methods for Development Studies
- War to Peace Transitions
- Security
- Borders and Development
- Global Commodity Chains, Production Networks and Informal Work
- Aid and Development
- Migration and Policy
- Labour, Activism and Global Development
- Energy Transition, Nature, and Development in a Time of Climate Change
- Environment, Governance and Development
- Global Health and Development
- Cities and Development
- Feminist Political Economy and Global Development
- Global Approaches to Peace
- International Development Placement
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
A degree from the Department of Development Studies at SOAS will further develop your understanding of the world and how society is organised, with a specific focus on violence and conflict, the role of aid, refugees and forced migration. Graduates leave with a range of transferable skills, including critical thinking, analytical skills and cultural awareness.
Recent graduates have been hired by:
- Amnesty International
- BBC World Service
- British Embassy Brussels
- Department for International Development
- Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
- Embassy of Japan
- Government of Pakistan
- Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- KPMG LLP
- Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Overseas Development Institute
- Oxfam
- Royal Norwegian Embassy
- Save the Children UK
- The World Bank
- Thinking Beyond Borders
- US Department of State
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- WaterAid
Program delivery
Our teaching and learning approach is designed to support and encourage students in their process of self-learning, and to develop their own ideas, responses and critique of international development practice and policy.
We do this through a mixture of lectures, and more student-centred learning approaches (including tutorials and seminars). Teaching combines innovative use of audio-visual materials, practical exercises, group discussions, weekly guided reading and discussions, and conventional lecturing.
In addition to the taught part of the master's programme, all students will write a 10,000 word dissertation. Students develop their research topic under the guidance and supervision of an academic member of the Department. Students are encouraged to explore a particular body of theory or an academic debate relevant to their programme through a focus on a particular region.
Program Admission Requirements
Show your commitment and readiness for Grad school by taking the GRE - the most broadly accepted exam for graduate programs internationally.