Skip navigation
Development Studies at University of Oxford - UCAS

Course options

2024 - 20252025 - 2026
Apply

Course summary

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2023). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas. The two-year MPhil in Development Studies will provide you with a rigorous and critical introduction to development as a process of managed and unmanaged change in societies in the global South. Our students go on to careers in development policy or practice or for further study in the field. Course objectives The course will introduce you to development studies as an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary subject. It covers the intellectual history of development, the paradigm shifts and internal conflicts within the discipline and the contemporary relevance of research to development policy and practice. Course structure The course comprises five elements: foundation courses, research methods, the core course, the thesis and two option courses. In the first year, you will study two out of three foundation courses:

  • Economics
  • History and Politics
  • Social Anthropology
If you have no previous training in economics you must take this as one of your foundation courses; otherwise you must take the other two. You will learn about research methods for the social sciences, comprising sessions on research design and qualitative and quantitative methods. Thesis workshops offer preparation for your research. Additional sessions will be held on aspects of fieldwork ethics and safety, library resources and software and computerised databases. The core course, also taken in the first year, is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary course with two component modules:
  • Theories of Development
  • Key Themes in Development
You will spend the summer following your first year working on a thesis. You will choose the topic, with the guidance of your supervisor, and, in most cases, spend some of the summer doing research and gathering data. In the second year, you will take your chosen option courses and continue work on your thesis. More information can be found in the course handbook on the department's course page. Teaching and learning Each course entails up to four hours of teaching per week, delivered through lectures, classes and workshops. Class sizes are small – between 5 and 30 students – encouraging active participation and enabling students to learn from each other. You prepare for sessions by reading a selection of recommended books, book chapters and articles.

Entry requirements

For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

For complete and up-to-date information about fees and funding for this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas.
Development Studies at University of Oxford - UCAS