This programme offers you the chance to undertake a substantial piece of work that is worthy of publication and which makes an original contribution to international development. You will begin on the MRes, and will need to meet certain requirements to progress to the PhD. The Department of International Development promotes interdisciplinary graduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change. The Department is dedicated to understanding problems of poverty and late development within local communities, as well as national and international political and economic systems.

The Department conducts research and teaching across seven broad themes: complex emergencies, security, and humanitarianism in war-torn societies; comparative politics of development; governance, civil society, and informal politics; development management; development economics; the demography of developing countries and the politics of global health. Faculty have considerable experience of living and working in the developing world, and most have engaged in policy-relevant research and consultancy work with international development agencies or non-governmental organisations. This is a vibrant MRes/PhD programme with students employing a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary methods from across the social sciences to research questions of development around the globe.

Careers

Students who successfully complete the programme often embark on an academic career. Our graduates go on to secure tenure-track academic posts at major universities worldwide. Recent graduates have also gone on to work in a range of development, consultancy and research roles in the private and public sectors, including for example, in aid agencies and NGOs.