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About Development Studies, MSc - at SOAS University of London

The MSc Development Studies programme provides a solid interdisciplinary social science formation in development theory and practice and develops students' capacities for independent and critical analysis.

Development Studies is a dynamic field concerned with processes of change in the South -social and economic, political and cultural - and the major policy challenges they present to efforts to overcome poverty and insecurity.

See Department of Development Studies

Highlights

• the meanings of development and the challenges it faces
• neoliberalism and its critiques
• industrialisation, labour and capital
• state failure, poverty and insecurity
• gender and class analysis
• NGOs, civil society and social movements
• globalisation, commodity chains and trade
• the agrarian question, peasantry and land

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Entry requirements

Contact SOAS University of London to find course entry requirements.

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Why study at SOAS University of London

• SOAS is in London, which is officially the best student city in the world - and has been for five years in a row (QS World Rankings 2024)
• There are 5,630 students on campus, from 135+ countries 
• 2nd in the UK for international faculty (QS World Rankings 2024)
• Top 30 in the UK (The Times Good University Guide 2024)
• Top 40 in the UK for research quality Complete University Guide 2024)
• 6th in the UK for employment outcomes (QS World Rankings 2023)
• Top 100 in the world for addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals for Peace, Justice, Poverty and Gender Equality (Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, 2023)
• One of 35 National Research Libraries in the UK. We have over 1.5 million volumes, periodicals and audio-visual materials in 400 languages, focusing on Asia, Africa and the Middle East
• 87% of research ranked 'world-leading or internationally excellent' (Research Excellence Framework 2021)