MSc Environment, Politics and Development

Overview

Students must take 180 credits comprised of 120 taught credits (including core and option modules) and a 60 credit dissertation.

All students take core modules, ‘Political Ecology of Development’ and a ‘Dissertation in Development Studies’. They then choose EITHER ‘Political Economy of Development’ OR ‘Theory, Policy and Practice of Development’ OR ‘Political Economy of Violence, Conflict & Development’ OR ‘Law and Natural Resources’. Through these modules, students build their analytical skills and knowledge of the main issues and debates in Development Studies.

Specialisation

Students also take option modules, allowing them to specialise in particular areas of environment, politics and development and possibly using them to develop a dissertation in a related theme. By tying optional modules to their individual dissertation topic, students tailor their degree to suit their own interests and career development goals.

Please note that not all option modules may run every year. Modules at other institutions (intercollegiate) are not part of the approved programme structure.

Part-time Study

Students can take this programme part-time over 2 or 3 years. Students usually complete their core modules in Year 1 and their option modules and dissertation in subsequent years.

Students take the following TWO core modules:

• Political Ecology of Development
• Dissertation in Development Studies

Students then choose ONE of the following modules:

• Political Economy of Development
• Theory, policy and practice of development
• Political economy of violence, conflict and development
• Law and Natural Resources

Students choose modules to the value of 30 credits from List 1 and 30 credits from List 2 below:-

• Agrarian Development, Food Policy and Rural Poverty
• Aid and Development
• Battlefields of Method: Approaches to International Development Research
• Borders and Development
• Civil society, social movements and the development process
• Development Practice
• Environment, Governance and Development
• Energy Transition, Nature, and Development in a Time of Climate Change
• Famine and food security
• Fundamentals of research methods for Development Studies
• Gender and Development
• Global Commodity Chains, Production Networks and Informal Work
• Global Health and Development
• Issues in Forced Migration
• Marxist Political Economy and Global Development
• Migration and Policy
• Natural resources, development and change: putting critical analysis into practice
• Neoliberalism, Democracy and Global Development
• Problems of Development in the Middle East and North Africa
• Security
• The Working Poor and Development
• Understanding Economic Migration: Theories, Patterns and Policies
• Water and Development:Conflict and Governance
• Water Resources: Justice and Governance

Open module options in other departments

All MSc students in Development Studies are eligible to attend the one-term, non-assessed course, Economics for Beginners, which introduces students to basic concepts in microeconomics, macroeconomics, development economics, and statistics and econometrics.

If you are a current student you can find structure information on Moodle or through your Department.

• Programme Specification 17/18 (pdf; 218kb)
• Programme Specification 16/17 (pdf; 187kb)

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules