MSc Urbanisation and Development

About the MSc programme

The MSc Urbanisation and Development programme offers students an integrated and up-to-date course on urban development, which draws on the breadth of research expertise and practical experience in the Department of Geography and Environment| and the Department of International Development|. Teaching staff are leading researchers in the field supplemented by visiting professors and an intense schedule of outside speakers, seminars and conferences.

This programme is intended for graduates with a good first degree in social science, such as geography, development, sociology, planning and anthropology.  Applicants with degrees in other subjects will be considered, especially if they have work or voluntary experience relevant to cities and/or development.

At a time when three-quarters of the world's urban population and 90 per cent of urban population growth will be in the developing world, it is vital we understand relationships between urban and development issues from both theoretical and empirical standpoints. The programme reviews urbanism from colonial to the contemporary period, emphasising demographic, social, economic, cultural and political processes. The programme pays particular attention to the origins and claims of development theory and practice, and the aims and achievements of contemporary urban policy from a wide variety of thematic and theoretical perspectives.

Graduates enter a wide variety of employment including non-governmental and civil society organisations, international organisations, research, consultancy, and the public sector, as well as further study.

Compulsory courses

• Urban Theory, Policy and Practice in the Global South 
• Dissertation

Options

(* half unit)

Choose courses to the value of one unit from:

• Development: History, Theory and Policy
• Poverty*
• Population and Development: An Analytical Approach*
• African Development*
• Complex Emergencies*
• Emerging Health Threats and Development*
• The Informal Economy and Non-State Governance*

Choose courses to the value of one unit from:

• Gender and Development: Geographical Perspectives*
• Contemporary Urbanism
• Urban Ethnography*
• Cities, People and Poverty in the South*
• Cities and Social Change in East Asia*
• Cities Politics and Citizenship*
• Planning for Sustainable Cities*
• Economic Appraisal and Valuation*
• Race and Space*
• Development, Diaspora and Migration*
• Environment and Development: Sustainability, Technology and Business*
• Environment and Development: Resources, Institutions and the Global South*
• The Urban Revolution*
• Key Issues in Development Studies* 

NB In exceptional cases it may be possible to take alternative optional choices with the approval of the programme director.

In general minimum teaching contact  for a full-unit course is usually 40 hours, and 20 hours for a half-unit.