MSc Global Development (Poverty and Inequality) / Course details

In a world where over 1.4 billion people still live in poverty and inequality continues to rise, both within and between nations, the MSc Global Development with Poverty and Inequality equips you with the critical tools and real-world insight to address one of humanity’s most urgent moral and political challenges.

MSc Global Development with Poverty and Inequality focuses on the causes, consequences and lived realities of poverty and inequality across different global contexts.

You will explore how poverty and inequality are understood, measured and addressed, and examine the social, political and economic structures that shape people’s lives and opportunities.

The course is designed for students who want to move beyond headlines and statistics to understand the root causes of poverty and inequality.

You will consider how inequality is produced and contested across areas such as material deprivation, social exclusion, power, race, gender and rights, while developing the analytical skills needed to assess development policy and practice.

You will build critical and practical skills in analysing poverty, evaluating policy responses and understanding how more equitable alternatives can be developed. The course supports you to engage with different conceptual frameworks and real-world development challenges, helping you connect theory with the complex realities faced by communities, institutions and policymakers.

Studying at Manchester places you within the Global Development Institute, one of the largest development-focused research and teaching institutes in Europe.

You will be part of a university ranked in the world’s top five for Development Studies, with opportunities to engage with a diverse community of students and researchers focused on global development challenges (QS Rankings, 2026).

The programme is suitable for students seeking careers in government, international organisations, NGOs, civil society organisations, the private sector, research, policy and development practice.

• Provide critical insights into different theoretical and disciplinary perspectives on how poverty, inequality and development can be understood, measured and explained. 
• Provide you with a thorough conceptual framework and the skills necessary to critically analyse key theoretical and practical issues relating to poverty, inequality and development. 
• Provide critical insights into the key strategies, policies and practices currently employed to promote development, equality and poverty reduction. 
• Provide a wide range of options for advanced training in areas of specialist expertise relevant to poverty, inequality and development. 
• Develop advanced competencies in transferable areas, including developing reasoned arguments, gathering, organising and using evidence and information from a wide variety of sources, undertaking both team-based and independent work to deadlines, and both written and verbal forms of communication. 
• Assist you in developing your specialist area of expertise within the field of poverty, inequality and development, and applying your understanding and skills through supervised individual research culminating in a dissertation.

• We're Europe's largest dedicated development research and teaching institute and have been at the forefront of development studies for over 60 years .
• We are ranked first for research environment and second overall in the UK in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021).
• We are proud to tackle global inequalities and rank first in the UK for our impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (THE Impact Rankings 2025).
• We bring cutting-edge insights from our research into all our postgraduate teaching. Our courses bring different development perspectives and voices to Manchester, from activists from the Global South to the leaders of multinational companies.
• We are home to the internationally recognised African Cities Research Consortium , Effective States and Inclusive Development and FutureDAMS research centres.
• Students are part of our vibrant research community, including our public lecture series which brings world experts, former heads of state, and leading development thinkers, to discuss current issues in development.

Important notice: factors affecting fieldwork and placements

The School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) recognises the value of fieldwork and placements. However, the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff remains our priority.

The School will assess on a regular basis the viability of any travel and fieldwork and communicate any significant changes to our students at the earliest possible opportunity.

The taught elements of the course, carrying 120 credits overall, are continuously assessed by a variety of methods (eg, project-based reports, essays), involving largely individual submissions, but also elements of group work.

You must also complete a 12,000-15,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice approved by the Programme Directors.

You are encouraged to base your dissertation on topics of direct professional concern.