MA Social Policy and Social Development: The University of Manchester

MA International Development: Social Policy and Social Development

Course description

This programme aims to enhance analytical and critical skills in key theoretical and practical aspects of social policy and social development. It provides an opportunity to examine existing welfare policies, and develop professional skills in the formulation and implementation of social policies through the critical assessment of relevant research and analytical techniques. The programme is intended for social science graduates or for public sector personnel involved in social policy formulation and implementation as well as NGO personnel concerned with policy advocacy and social development project implementation and teachers and researchers in social work and social policy.

Module details

Core course units typically include:

• Perspectives on Development
• Development Research
• Social Development: Analysis and Policy
• Comparative Social Policy

Optional course units may include:

• Civil Society and Public Action
• Poverty and Development: Concepts, Analysis and the International Poverty Agenda
• Conflict Analysis
• Development as Historical Change
• Critical Issues in Urban Inequality
• Politics and Development
• Reconstruction and Development
• Planning and Managing Development
• Poverty, Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction in Context
• Meeting the Millennium development Goals: The Anthropology of International Development
• Politics and Development
• Political Economy of Development

Career opportunities

This programme is intended for graduates in any of the social sciences and with a strong interest in understanding processes of change, transition and social and economic development; or mid-career professionals working in the voluntary, private, or public sectors. The programme is well suited to those involved in policy formulation and implementation, advocacy, and management of development projects and programmes. Career prospects are wide-ranging, including research, teaching and administration in civil society organisations, NGOs, government, and the private sector.

IDPM has a large and diverse postgraduate population, including a large number of students from outside the UK (85% of their students are drawn from outside the UK, particularly from Africa, Asia and Western Europe, but also reaching out to Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the Pacific). Many of their alumni have gone on to prestigious careers in the public service or in the NGO/charitable and private sectors, as policy officers, managers, consultants or development practitioners - while others have pursued further academic study leading to a PhD and academic careers. Since its foundation, IDPM has trained over 7000 individuals from 170 different countries.

Entry requirements

Academic entry qualification overview:

Applicants should have a good first degree (minimum 2:1 or equivalent).

Admission of candidates who do not meet this criterion may be approved if satisfactory evidence of postgraduate study, research or professional experience can be provided.

English language:

Applicants whose first language is not English should meet the following language requirements:

• an IELTS Test score of 7.0 or more overall with a minimum writing score of 7
• or a TOEFL Test (Paper-based) score of 600 or more with a minimum score in Test of Written English of 5
• or a TOEFL Test (Computer-based) score of 250 or more with a minimum essay rating of 5
• or a TOEFL Test (Internet based) score of 100 or more with a minimum writing score of 25
• an NCUK PMP EAP Grade A

Applicants whose language of academic instruction for at least 1 year has been English may be exempted from this requirement, at the discretion of the Institute.