Course summary
Delve into an advanced, critical exploration of East Asia’s transformation and its role in twenty-first-century world affairs. Examine how political, economic and social change across the region intersects with and reshapes global structures, uncovering the opportunities, challenges and strategic questions this interaction creates for governments, firms, and communities. East Asia is now central to debates about the future of global capitalism. Core teaching grounds you in the region’s historical and contemporary trajectories, enabling you to trace the forces that propelled rapid industrialisation, technological leadership and shifting patterns of welfare and inequality. Engage with competing explanations of East Asian success and interrogate claims that global capitalism is entering a period of deepening crisis, using the region as a lens through which to test and refine wider theories of international political economy. Focus on power relations to reveal how trade, finance, and investment flows knit East Asian economies together and connect them to other parts of the world. Explore emerging hierarchies within the region, changing relationships between East Asia and the Global North and South, and the strategic calculations that shape regional and international institutions. Challenge commonly held Eurocentric assumptions about what development is and how it can be achieved, cultivating an informed, critical stance on policy debates that influence billions of lives. Be inspired by internationally recognised scholars whose research animates seminar discussions and supervises individual enquiry. Lively classroom debate within a diverse postgraduate cohort equips you to articulate your own authentic scholarly voice while honing the analytical skills valued by governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations engaged with East Asia. Write a dissertation through which you design and manage a substantial research project, apply theoretical frameworks to empirical evidence, and present findings to the highest academic standard. Graduate with a nuanced grasp of East Asia’s development experience, a rigorous command of international political economy, and the capacity to apply your knowledge to political, social and environmental challenges both within the region and across the world.
Assessment method
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/media/postgraduate/admissions-statements/2026/msc-east-asian-development-and-the-global-economy.pdf
How to apply
International applicants
The University of Bristol welcomes applications from international students and accepts a wide range of qualifications for postgraduate study. If you study or have studied at a university outside the UK, please select the relevant page for further information on qualifications, scholarships and education representatives in your country/region: bristol.ac.uk/international/countries.
Entry requirements
You will typically need an upper second-class honours degree or an international equivalent in any discipline. If you are currently completing a degree, we understand that your final grade may be higher than the interim grades or module/unit grades you have achieved during your studies to date. We will consider your application if your interim grades are currently slightly lower than the programme's entry requirements and may make you an aspirational offer. This offer would be at the standard level, so you would need to achieve the standard entry requirements by the end of your degree. Specific module requirements would still apply. We will also consider your application if your final overall achieved grade is slightly lower than the programme's entry requirement. If you have at least one of the following, please include your CV (curriculum vitae / résumé) when you apply, showing details of your relevant qualifications: - Evidence of significant, relevant work experience in one of the following sectors: NGOs, Government Departments, Think Tanks, Social Research Institutes (minimum of six months in a paid or voluntary role) - A postgraduate qualification in any discipline. See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website. https://www.bristol.ac.uk/international/countries/.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
| Channel Islands | £8200 | Year 1 |
| England | £8200 | Year 1 |
| Northern Ireland | £8200 | Year 1 |
| Scotland | £8200 | Year 1 |
| Wales | £8200 | Year 1 |
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
Fees are subject to an annual review. For programmes that last longer than one year, please budget for up to an 8% increase in fees each year.
For more information, please view the programme page on our website.
Provider information
University of Bristol
Beacon House
Queen’s Road
Bristol
BS8 1QU