MSc Global Development (Labour and Activism)
DURATION
1 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
Aug 2024
TUITION FEES
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STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* for overseas student fees | home student fees: GBP 12,220 per year
Introduction
Students are encouraged to examine critically the relationship between labour, capitalism, development and poverty.
We investigate labour in the contemporary social and economic development of the Global South as well as established and emerging social movements of labour in local, national and international spaces. You will learn to identify and evaluate the relationship between collective agency, policy and vice-versa.
We work in seminar/tutorial formats that encourage critical thinking and participation via an emphasis on the relationship between theory and practice. Programme lecturers are not just research active. We are also activists and have experience of participation in labour and social movements across the world - Latin America, Africa and Asia and Europe and have on-going contacts with such movements as well as with NGOs and international organisations.
Why study MSc Global Development (Labour and Activism) at SOAS?
- SOAS is ranked 3rd in the world for Development Studies (QS World University Rankings 2024)
- You will have the opportunity to take work placements as part of your degree, and we offer internships in the department and in partner organisations. This year MSc students were offered placements in the International Organisation for Migration, the London International Development Centre and international NGOs
- Get a placement in a partner organisation working in international development with our new International Development Placement module - available as in-person and virtual options.
Ideal Students
Who Should Apply?
The MSc Global Development (Labour and Activism) programme is for students who wish to understand how labour and collective agency impact core processes of development. Our students acquire skill sets that combine the theory and practice of labour, social movements and how they interplay with key developmental themes and interventions.
The programme is relevant to students with a strong background in the social sciences in their first degree as well as practitioners and activists from a wide spectrum of organisations and approaches.
Admissions
Curriculum
Students must take 180 credits per year comprised of 120 taught credits (including core, compulsory and optional modules) and a 60-credit dissertation.
Open modules: Students can choose up to 30 credits from other Departments as open options
Core Module
- Dissertation in Development Studies
Compulsory Modules
- Gender and Development
- Theory, Policy, and Practice of Development
- Political Economy of Development
Guided Modules: List A
- Feminist Political Economy and Global Development
Guided Modules: List B
- Gender Economics (PG)
- Gender, Protest, and Revolution in the Middle East
- Queering Migrations and Diasporas
- Queer Politics in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East
- Gender and the Law of Peace
- Transnationalising Queer, Trans and Disability Studies (removed)
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
A degree from the Department of Development Studies at SOAS will further develop your understanding of the world and how society is organised, with specific focus on violence and conflict, the role of aid, refugees and forced migration. Graduates leave with a range of transferable skills, including critical thinking, analytical skills and cultural awareness.
Recent graduates have been hired by:
- Amnesty International
- BBC World Service
- British Embassy Brussels
- Department for International Development
- Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
- Embassy of Japan
- Government of Pakistan
- Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office
- International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- KPMG LLP
- Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
- National Health and Medical Research Council
- Overseas Development Institute
- Oxfam
- Royal Norwegian Embassy
- Save the Children UK
- The World Bank
- Thinking Beyond Borders
- US Department of State
- UN World Food Programme
- UN High Commissioner for Refugees
- WaterAid
Program Leaders
Program delivery
Our teaching and learning approach is designed to support and encourage students in their own process of self-learning, and to develop their own ideas, responses and critique of international development practice and policy. We do this through a mixture of lectures, and more student-centred learning approaches (including tutorials and seminars).
Teaching combines innovative use of audio-visual materials, practical exercises, group discussions, and weekly guided reading and discussions, as well as conventional lecturing.