Why do micro-credit interventions, designed to empower women, often contribute to continuing gender inequalities? What role do policy elites play in causing ethnic conflicts? What social changes explain rising levels of witchcraft accusations across many societies, and how can social development practitioners engage with these cultural practices? What are masculinities and how do they affect men’s vulnerability to HIV? How can we, as social development practitioners, build interventions that can support people to reshape their lives and promote wellbeing? What roles should the state or civil society be playing in social development? These are a taste of some of the fascinating questions and challenges you’ll tackle in your degree.

The MA International Social Development enables you to understand local and global challenges to people’s wellbeing, in order to better inform solutions. You’ll also learn about success stories and positive development processes, which offer these potential solutions to problems. The academics teaching on the course bring their current research into the learning sessions, so that you have the chance to study at the cutting edge of research and new knowledge.

The course often analyses social development issues and interventions at the community level, focusing on the social actors on the ground who might be implementing or ‘receiving’ the intervention’s resources. Only by examining how and why people respond to interventions can we understand the effects or outcomes of interventions.

Whichever topics or themes you wish to focus your learning and expertise on, you’ll be able to tailor and build your degree from the wide range of modules available to you – allowing you to make your mark.

After the course you’ll have specialised academic skills, transferable skills and expertise or work experience in an area of social development. You can return better qualified to your existing career or job, or pursue a new career trajectory in various fields of social development, ranging from community development or project implementation work, to research or policy analysis.

Our graduates go on to work for international non-governmental organisations (INGOS) or multi-lateral government agencies. Alternatively you might continue your studies with a PhD, or professional qualification such as a PGCE.

CAREER DESTINATIONS

A career in international social development can take you in all kinds of directions such as international organisations, governmental and non-governmental organisations, local governments, private sector and PhD programmes.

Previous graduates have gone on to work for:

• Save the Children Fund as a researcher

• Plan International in logistics for humanitarian assistance

• Ministry of Education, Namibia as a project officer

• UK local government in community development

• Private sector in corporate social responsibility

• International NGOs in policy research