Fees and funding

Fees

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 .

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

International student CAS deposit

Self-funded international applicants are required to pay a deposit of £2500 towards their tuition fees before a confirmation of acceptance for studies (CAS) is issued. Some applicants will be required to pay a higher deposit. More information on tuition fee deposits .

Policy on additional costs

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).

Scholarships/sponsorships

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

Course unit details:
Planning and Managing Development

Course unit fact file
Unit code MGDI70992
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Offered by Global Development Institute
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

This course offers a critical reflection on methods and techniques of project/programme planning and management. It offers a critical guide to the selection and use of such methods and techniques in a social development context.

Pre/co-requisites

There will be a introductory lecture late in semester one at which students enrolled for the course will be introduced to the group project themes and invited to form project groups of four (approx.).

Work on the group projects begins from the start of the course so students for whom the course unit is optional are encouraged to decide whether they wish to take the course at the start of semester one to minimise disruption to the project groups.

Aims

The unit aims to help students develop critical project planning and management knowledge and skills needed to competently respond to development problem situations

Learning outcomes

To develop critical project planning and management knowledge as well as skills and attitudes needed to competently respond to development problem situations in an international context. Many of the skills are transferrable.

Teaching and learning methods

The unit is delivered through ten lectures/tutorials sessions that are highly interactive. These are run as weekly 3h sessions. For each session a lecture sets the theoretical context of the approach/method/tool that is under study. This is followed with a problem-based task for the tutorial activity in order to give students experience of how to apply the methods and techniques in a particular situation. The goals is for students to learn how to develop a planned intervention to a ‘real life’ problem situation.

 

 

Knowledge and understanding

  • Knowledge of key project planning and management methods and techniques and how to select and use them in development contexts

 

  • Critical understanding of the issues surrounding project interventions and choice of techniques

 

  • Knowledge and understanding of the discourses and discursive practices in planning and managing development

 

 

Intellectual skills

  • Develop critical, analytical, synthesis and problem-solving skills related to development interventions.

  • Demonstrate critical analysis of project planning methods and their use in development interventions

  • Apply knowledge of approaches, methods and techniques in wider development contexts

Practical skills

  • Ability to structure a development problem situation and to plan a response based on e.g. logframes, theory of change and other alternatives

 

  • To manage time, self and others, and work to tight deadlines.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Team working skills especially: leadership skills; ability to organise self and others to accomplish tasks; sharing knowledge and managing differences

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written assignment (inc essay) 100%

Feedback methods

Formative feedback is provided each week during the tutorial sessions

 

Recommended reading

Scott, C. (2023). The Project in International Development: Theory and Practice. Oxon: Routledge

Dale, R. (2004). Development Planning: Concepts and Tools for Planners, Managers and Facilitators. London: Zed Books

Krause, M. (2014). The Good Project: Humanitarian Relief NGOs and the Fragmentation of Reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Course reading list in the library: https://www.readinglists.manchester.ac.uk/leganto/readinglist/lists?courseCode=I3028-MGDI-70992-1241-2SE-010647&primo=true&auth=CAS 
 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 10
Tutorials 10
Independent study hours
Independent study 120

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Epiphania Kimaro Unit coordinator
Jonathan Lillie Unit coordinator

Return to course details

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