School of Social and Political Science

MSc International Development

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Introduction

Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines for this programme. See 'how to apply' below for the application deadlines.

Applications for September 2025 entry are now open.

How can international thinking and perspectives on development have impact on societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America?

This programme engages critically with international development theory and practice, and more broadly with processes of social, political and economic transformation throughout the global south.

It is designed to suit the needs of both recent graduates of various disciplines, and professionals with two to five, or more, years’ experience who want to shift careers, upgrade their academic qualifications, or take a year out to reflect critically on their work.

New skills, critical reflection

Our programme is designed to appeal equally to recent graduates of various disciplines, and professionals with more than two years work experience looking to change careers, upgrade their academic qualifications, or take a year out to reflect critically on their work.

Our graduates

Our previous graduates can be found around the world - in government ministries, development consultancies, financial institutions, as well as in campaign groups, social enterprises and NGOs. Others use the programme as a pathway into our PhD in International Development and have gone on to develop their specialist knowledge through post-graduate research projects.

Aims

The MSc in International Development will assist students in developing a deep understanding of development processes in the Global South, and how international thinking and development practice has impacted around the world. Students will gain critical skills in analysing development policy and undertaking research in the context of developing countries.

The MSc programme seeks to contextualise and analyse the processes that have shaped poverty and underdevelopment in developing countries, and the many responses to them. The programme offers a grounded and multi-disciplinary grasp of issues of development in global, national and local contexts for students interested in pursuing a career in development agencies, research, the public sector and non-governmental organisations.

Specific aims are:
  • Development of analytical and conceptual skills to enable critical evaluation and investigation of development issues: What is development and 'where' does it come from?
  • Thorough training in comparative analysis: Can we understand international development comparatively?
  • In-depth knowledge of the main historical events, actors and processes that have shaped development: Is development ahistorical?
  • Detailed and comparative examination of local and international interpretation of development: Do local cultures fit into development? Are local perspectives important in development?
  • Knowledge and skills needed for pursuing career in development agencies, political institutions or academia: Has development worked in different regions of the world? What future for development?

At the end of the course, students should have a deep understanding of development processes and their implications, and how international thinking and perspectives on development have impacted upon societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Students should have gained critical skills in analysing development policy and undertaking development research.

Structure

You will complete a total of six courses over two semesters stretching from September to April. From May to August students complete either a work-based project or a standard research dissertation.

Courses

Three courses are compulsory and three are optional. Options may be chosen from across the University, drawing on the expertise of faculty members within political and social science and beyond, including business, law and geosciences.

We also run a compulsory non-credit course that aims to sharpen research and analytical skills needed for postgraduate students in international development to embark on their summer dissertation research projects.

In addition you will have the opportunity to choose three optional courses from those taught in the School of Social and Political Sciences and relevant courses from other parts of the University on topics such as:

  • Displacement
  • Global Health
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Africa
  • South Asia
  • Governance
  • Conflict
  • Human Rights
  • Child Rights
  • Education
Work-based project

We realise the importance of offering practical experiences to complement our critical and historical approaches in the classroom. An integral part of the programme – and one of our advantages compared to other masters programmes in international development – are work-based projects.

These consist of eight weeks of on-location research with a host organisation in Africa, South and South East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America as well as in the UK. Our extensive network of partners includes NGOs, charities, social enterprise, think-tanks and government bodies.

Research dissertation

Alternatively, you may wish to explore an academic issue or theme in greater depth by choosing to complete a research dissertation based on fieldwork and/or print and library sources.

How to apply

Application deadlines

Due to high demand, this programme operates a gathered field approach to admissions, with two application deadlines as noted below. 

Each application round has a decision deadline, also listed below, but note that we may make offers to the strongest candidates on an ongoing basis, in advance of the published decision deadline. 

We strongly recommend that you apply as early as possible, especially if you intend to apply for funding. Applications may close earlier than published deadlines if there is exceptionally high demand. If you are considering applying for our pre-sessional English Language programme, please make sure you apply in Round 1. 

Please ensure that you have submitted all supporting documentation and paid the application fee before the deadline for the round you wish to be considered in.

RoundApplication deadlinePlaces awarded by
113 January 202517 April 2025
229 May 202530 June 2025

Deadline for UK/Scotland fee status

After round 2, if there are still places available, applications will remain open only to applicants who are eligible for the UK/Scotland fee rate, including the EU/EEA Pre-settled Scotland fee status. Applications will remain open no later than 30 June 2025 and may close earlier than this if the programme becomes full, so we strongly recommend you apply as soon as possible.

If you apply with another fee status after 29 May 2025, your application will be rejected.

Application fee

This programme requires a non-refundable application fee of £50.

Living costs

You will be responsible for covering living costs for the duration of your studies.

Tuition fees

AwardTitleDurationStudy mode 
MSc 1 YearFull-timeTuition fees
MSc 2 YearsPart-timeTuition fees

Your application will not be processed until we have received your application fee.

Successful applicants must accept their offer within 28 days of the response date in order to secure their place on the programme. As this programme is highly competitive, any applicants who have not responded within this time will lose their offer, and offers will be made to applicants on the waiting list as places become available.

If you have received an offer but are no longer able to take up your place, please decline your offer via your Applicant Hub portal, or contact PGAdmissions.sps@ed.ac.uk so that your place may be offered to another applicant.

Reading recommendations

To get a sense of what recent research our academic staff has conducted, check out the following publications:

Mohamed Amir Anwar’s The Digital Continent, with M. Graham (Oxford University Press)

Andrew Bowman’s Inclusive agro-industrial development and sectoral systems of innovation, in Innovation & Development

Jacob Doherty’s  Waste Worlds: Inhabiting Kampala's Infrastructures of Disposability(University of California Press)

Kevin Donovan’s Money, Value, and the State: Sovereignty and Citizenship in East Africa (Cambridge University Press)

Maggie Dwyer’s. Distancing through peacekeeping: Global peacekeeping assemblages and the Gambian armed forces, in International Affairs 

Andreas Hackl’s  The Invisible Palestinians: The Hidden Struggle for Inclusion in Jewish Tel Aviv. (Indiana University Press). 

Sophie Haines’s  Pluralizing climates: from observation and reception to translation and praxis, with Sara de Wit, in Journal of Political Ecology Grassroots series 

Juli Huang’s  ‘Uncomfortable Comparisons: Anthropology, Development, and Mixed Feelings’, with Katy Gardner, in How People Compare (LSE Monographs in Soc. Ant.)

Akin Iwilade’s The co-constitution of city-time, materials and youth life in urban LagosCanadian Journal of African Studies

Aaron Kappeler’s The Devil and Florentino: Specters of Petro-Populism in Venezuela, in Comparative Studies in Society and History

Thabani Mutambasere’s Unruly diaspora action as decolonization: Abjection and activism among Zimbabweans in London, in Global Networks

Zeynep Oguz’s Speculative undergrounds: Oil’s absent presence, neo-imperial nationalisms, and earth politics in Turkey , in Cultural Anthropology

Nelson Oppong’s Aiding stakeholder capitalism: Donors and the contentious landscape of transparency reform in Ghana, in Canadian Journal of Development Studies

Jeevan Sharma’s Political Economy of Social Change and Development in Nepal(Bloomsbury)   

 

 

Programme Director

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