International Development Master of Arts - MArt (Hons)

Learn about social and environmental justice, inequality, and rural and urban development. Gain applied knowledge and skills rooted in interdisciplinary learning and decolonising knowledge. Connecting theory with policy and practice, you’ll grow highly transferable career-enhancing skills.

Course description

In a world of growing inequalities, escalating climate crises and polarised debates on aid and investment, the challenges of international development have never been more urgent. Our MSc aims to equip you with the knowledge and skills to shape development research and practice across public, private and third sectors.

Our course is rooted in interdisciplinary learning and decolonising knowledge, giving you the opportunity to explore global development challenges and solutions. 

Our approach to your learning combines teaching from experts, tailored professional skills training, an optional field class and a research-based dissertation (based on placements, research collaborations or independent research). 

This enables you to gain interdisciplinary knowledge in subjects as varied as environmental justice, inequality and rural and urban development. A range of optional modules allows you to tailor your learning experience. 

We focus on developing your transferable skills in research, policy analysis and stakeholder engagement. This prepares you for careers with NGOs, international organisations, government, consultancy and development-focused roles worldwide.

Learning about the evolution of development ideas over recent decades and their impact on policy and outcomes - such as climate change and environmental challenges, urbanisation and informality, poverty, inequality, gender, race, culture, technology, and global governance - will enable you to gain a holistic understanding of development challenges.

Our focus on professional and research skills allows you to experience work-related learning through core and optional modules. As a core part of your degree, you will undertake original, independent research. This could be informed by engaging in a placement-based dissertation (optional), which also offers hands-on experience in development work. As an optional part of your degree, you can learn about working with overseas organisations by taking our international field class module, which includes travel to an international location. Optional field classes and placements are not included in your tuition.\
Please see our University website for the most up-to-date course information.