MA International Political Economy (Standard)

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

• MA (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £16,800
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £30,500
• MA (part-time)
  UK students (per annum): £8,400
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £15,250

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 .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

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).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

• Learn more about - student finance options for UK students .
• Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
• 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 is designed as an advanced-level overview of the field of critical International Political Economy, with emphasis on an examination of the theoretical approaches and conceptual frameworks on which it rests. In doing so, the course sets the foundations for students to continue their exploration of key aspects of critical International Political Economy in the second semester in POLI70282: Critical Globalisation Studies.

• To provide an advanced introduction to the major theoretical approaches in orthodox and critical International Political Economy.
• To examine the utility of each theoretical approach.
• To assess on this basis the body of IPE theory and the evolution of the field of International Political Economy.
• To enhance students' critical, evaluative and communicative skills.

By the end of the course you can expect to:

• have developed a comprehensive and considered understanding of the field of critical International Political Economy.
• have developed a critical understanding of the scholarly literature.
• be able to work with and be critical of key conceptual approaches.
• be able to identify salient issues and new areas of research within the discipline, in particular the challenges posed to the mainstream by Marxist, feminist, post-structural and post-colonial perspectives.
• have enhanced your critical, evaluative, and communicative skills through your participation in class discussions, your research and your production of a course essay.

• 10 x 1 hour lectures 
• 10 x 1 hour seminars 

750 word article review (25%); 2,250 word assessed essay (75%).  

• Ronen Palan (ed) (2012) Global Political Economy: Contemporary Theories, second edition, London: Routledge.
• Stuart Shields, Ian Bruff and Huw Macartney (eds) (2011) Critical International Political Economy: Dialogue, Debate, and Dissensus, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Timetable