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 .

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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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Course unit details:
Development Fundamentals

Course unit fact file
Unit code MGDI60411
Credit rating 15
Unit level FHEQ level 7 – master's degree or fourth year of an integrated master's degree
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Offered by Global Development Institute
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This core course offers a critical and comprehensive introduction to the key aspects of development theory, paradigms, history and institutions from an interdisciplinary perspective, and thus provides the foundation for all pathways of the MSc programme in International Development.

It starts by mapping out an understanding of development as historical change, with a particular focus on modernity as well as key moments within the colonial encounter that led to the onset of capitalism and state formation and their contestations in the global south, and examines the continuities and ruptures between colonialism and the post-war development project.

The next part of the course covers the main theoretical schools of thought on development, from the grand narratives and onto more contemporary approaches, including post-colonial theory, environmentalism, feminism and new attempts to explain development as a fundamentally political process. These sessions will be explicitly inter-disciplinary in character, with ‘social approaches’ compared and contrasted with approaches from economics and political economy more broadly.

The course then turns to the main institutions involved in promoting development, including global governance institutions, the ‘developmental’ state, markets and civil society. The course closes with sessions on whether international development should be reframed as part of a broader project of social justice and on whether global development would be a more fitting paradigm for the 21st century.

Aims

The unit aims to provide:

  • A critical overview of the main aspects of development theory and paradigms, development as historical change and development institutions.
  • A critical understanding of how different disciplinary perspectives shape international development theory and practice and its analysis in a globalised world.
  • An opportunity for students to develop their range of competencies in transferable areas, including research, analysis, team-work and both written and verbal forms of communication

 

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching and learning will occur mainly through weekly lecture sessions and seminars, the latter of which will be based around a mixture of student-led presentations, small group-work and class debates. VLE will be used to share key resources and stimulate discussions of critical issues amongst course participants.

 

Knowledge and understanding

  • A thorough knowledge and critical understanding of different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives to investigating and explaining development
  • A thorough knowledge and critical understanding of how development unfolds as a process of historical change
  • A thorough knowledge and critical understanding of the main institutions involved in promoting development

Intellectual skills

  • The analytical skills required to critically evaluate and employ different theories of development, understand development as historical change and to interrogate the role played by different development actors

Practical skills

  • Professionally-oriented skills related to formulating and investigating different approaches to promoting development;

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • Improved competence in transferable areas, including developing reasoned arguments, gathering, organising and using evidence and information from a wide variety of sources, undertaking independent work to deadlines, and both written and verbal forms of communication

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 70%
Written assignment (inc essay) 30%

Feedback methods

Via Turnitin

Recommended reading

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. (2012). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. New York:  Random House.

Barrientos, S. (2019) Gender and Work in Global Value Chains: Capturing the Gains? Cambridge University Press.

Bebbington, A.J., S. Hickey, and D. C. Mitlin (Eds.), Can NGOs Make a Difference? The Challenge of Development Alternatives, London: Zed Books.

Bernstein, H. (2006) ‘Studying Development/Development Studies’ African Studies 65(1), pp. 45-62.

Cardoso, F. H., & Faletto, E. (1979). Dependency and Development in Latin America. University of California Press.

Chang, Ha-Joon (2002) Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective, London: Anthem

Cooper, F. and R. M. Packard (eds) (1997) International development and the social sciences: essays on the history and politics of knowledge, University of California Press, Berkeley.

Dicken, P. (2015) Global Shift: Mapping Changing Contours of the Global Economy London: Sage (7th edition).

Elson, D. (1995) (ed). Male Bias in the development process, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Escobar, A. (1995) Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World, Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Fraser, N. (2009) Scales of Justice: Reimagin

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 18
Tutorials 8
Independent study hours
Independent study 124

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Tim Jacoby Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Information
The course coordinator is Dr Rory Horner. The course will be team taught.

GDI Programmes on which course unit is offered:
MSc International Development (all pathways) (core)

Pre-requisites: None

Part-time students should take this course unit in their first year.

 

Return to course details

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