Development Studies: Global Development pathway

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 5th in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings 2025)
• We are ranked 2nd in the world for Academic Reputation (QS World University Rankings 2025)
• There is also the opportunity to take virtual work placements. This year MSc students taking the International Development Placement module were offered placements at the Overseas Development Institute, ISEAL, and MSF. (Numbers in this module are capped to 75 students due to limited availability)
• The 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

Pathways

Gender

MSc Global Development applicants apply for MSc Global Development but can decide to exit the degree on the Gender Pathway by choosing the combination of modules required. This information will be shared with students during the enrolment process.

Students taking the Gender Pathway will develop a specialist understanding of Development Studies in the context of Gender. SOAS's recognised strengths in this area, including the establishment of the SOAS Centre for Gender Studies, makes this a unique and exciting opportunity for those interested in development and gender.

Labour and Activism

MSc Global Development applicants apply for MSc Global Development but can decide to exit the degree on the Labour and Activism Pathway by choosing the combination of modules required. This information will be shared with students during the enrolment process.

On this pathway, students are encouraged to examine critically the relationship between labour, capitalism, development and poverty. We investigate labour in the contemporary social and economic development of the Global South as well as established and emerging social movements of labour in local, national and international spaces. You will learn to identify and evaluate the relationship between collective agency, policy and vice-versa.