Development Administration and Planning MSc

The Development Administration and Planning MSc at UCL equips you with the theoretical, empirical and practical expertise to promote social justice and address global development challenges. Through critical study, hands-on fieldwork and collaborative learning, you develop as a reflective practitioner, ready to work across sectors and scales to support inclusive, sustainable development in the Global South and beyond. The Development Administration and Planning MSc is an interdisciplinary course focused on socially just development planning. We take a decolonial perspective to build a collaborative understanding of how development interventions affect communities and settlements in different contexts, and interact with broad sets of cultural, institutional and governance apparatuses. As a student, through core modules you: Critically explore the evolution of development concepts and ideas, with a focus on post-colonial theories and drawing on perspectives from a multiplicity of stakeholders. Examine current methods for managing development projects. Learn about bottom-up participatory approaches that support marginalised communities . Develop a critical and reflexive approach towards ‘just’ development planning interventions across scales. Take part in an overseas practice engagement, conducting fieldwork with partners and communities in a Global South location, with a focus on the ethics of engagement . Build practical skills for your career as a development practitioner. You shape your learning journey by choosing from a wide range of optional modules to develop your specialist interests—for instance, by exploring the complexity of financing sustainable infrastructure development, or examining how development has been represented in cultural studies. By the end of the degree, you will have developed expertise to critically and comparatively assess interventions that promote social justice; and to analyse the role of actors from state, markets, and civil society, in shaping effective long-term economic growth, greater international equity and environmental sustainability. We offer practical and theoretical training in social transformation, designed for both recent graduates interested in exploring tools and frameworks for addressing global challenges, and for professionals with experience in government, civil society, or consultancy. We offer part-time and flexible study options that let you balance work and study. Our students typically come from academic backgrounds in social sciences, law, public administration, economics and politics. This diversity creates a collaborative working environment where students engage with different perspectives. This programme is also available on a modular (flexible) basis, with a duration of 5 calendar years.

The normal minimum qualifications are an upper second-class UK Bachelor's degree or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard, or a lower second-class UK Bachelor's degree, or an equivalent overseas qualification, in a subject appropriate to the programme, plus relevant work experience. In rare cases, applicants with degrees below this standard will be considered if they have significant relevant professional experience. In all cases, successful applicants are expected to provide good references and a strong personal statement, which adequately demonstrate the applicant’s interest in the topics addressed by this programme.