MSc Management and Implementation of Development Projects

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MSc (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £14,700
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £30,500

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

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All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

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Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

The course aims to rovide an historical review of various approaches to public sector reform and provide an extensive number of public sector reform examples from around the world, but with a bias towards sub-Saharan Africa; an to provide students with a critical understanding of the theoretical perspectives and concepts that underpin the field of the public sector, with a particular focus on issues of new public management, governance, the process of forming policy, and extensive examples of how to evaluate reforms.

The course will critically assess the new approaches to public management, and examine these from different disciplinary perspectives. Overall, the course will also aim to provide a solid development foundation for understanding key public sector reform theories whilst providing ‘real world’ examples of public sector reform.

 

 

 

• Understand the historical development of different approaches to public sector reform.
• Analyse the different disciplinary roots to ideas embodied in recent approaches to public management
• Compare and contrast country experiences and cross sector experiences of public sector reform activities and issues.
• Evaluate the outcome of different approaches to public sector reform

• To appreciate the intellectual origins of public sector reform theory and be able to explore and critique debates in development theory, public management policy and practice

• To gain a critical appreciation of a range of approaches to public sector reform and the management of policy, and to help develop practical tools and techniques in devising, implementing and assessing the impact of policy.

The course will help you develop the following skills

• General research skills
• Planning and evaluation skills – allowing student understand processes that underpin the public policy processes and impact evaluation
• Critical problem solving skills
• Motivation and self-directed learning.
• Communication skills and self-development and awareness

There will be many opportunities for formative feedback in seminar discussions. Oral feedback will be provided in response to class discussions. Summative feedback will be provided on assessed coursework via VLE.

Practice Essay to be undertaken half way through the module and to be discussed in tutorials.

Reading to be provided at the commencement of each lecture: Further reading of note includes:

Grindle M and J Thomas (1994) Public Choices and Policy Changes: The Political Economy of Reform in Developing Countries

Pollitt C (1990) Managerialism and the Public Services, Blackwell

Specific readings will be provided at the start of each lecture, but notable reading includes:

What Works for Africa's Poorest Children: From Measurement to Action

 https://practicalactionpublishing.com/book/2366/what-works-for-africas-poorest-children

Gender, Poverty and Access to Justice: Policy Implementation in SSA 

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315407104 

Cash Transfers for Poverty Reduction: An International Operational Guide

CASH TRANSFERS FOR POVERTY REDUCT... preview & related info | Mendeley