Global Political Economy University of Leeds

This programme unites our academic commitment and expertise in helping understand and develop responses to the most pressing global political economy challenges facing humanity today.

In conjunction with a firm grounding in the key theories and concepts of global political economy, you will have the opportunity to analyse powerful global economic governance agencies like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, alongside the firms and sectors and markets that generate many of the global conflicts, instabilities, crises and challenges we face. In the first semester we tackle the key concepts and frameworks for political economy analysis. In semester 2 you will explore how sectors, markets and firms are linked to, for example, food and health insecurities, unemployment, job precarity, poverty, climate change and pollution.

The programme’s emphasis on real-world issues allows us to place special attention on how governance agendas and their impact are experienced, negotiated and responded to in everyday lives and to compare and assess how policymakers and communities seek change.

Research expertise

Our academic experts from around the world are generating responses to many of the key global challenges faced by humanity in areas of climate change, global health, water and food insecurities, the gendered dynamics of political economy, and the multiple crises of neoliberal capitalism.

This programme features research-led teaching in the dynamic field of global political economy, and is enriched by the innovative research that occurs in the versatile Centre for Global Development.

Our research approach is most often grounded in the real-world experiences, conflicts, challenges and struggles of communities and classes living in the global North and South.

Entry requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in in any component.