Course Type: Undergraduate
Training Provider: School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS)
School/Institute/Dept./Centre: Department of Development Studies

The combined honours degree in Development Studies at SOAS was established in 1991 to provide challenging and innovative teaching in the field of development studies. It is a multidisciplinary course which grounds the study of social, political and economic changes in the developing world in a thorough understanding of specific environmental, historical and cultural contexts. Through the study of problems of development, students are expected to acquire analytical skills, to learn how to make connections between the global and the local, to present materials and ideas effectively and to develop a critical and non-Eurocentric attitude to the understanding of development.

A specialisation in development studies at undergraduate level is most effective when combined with either a solid grounding in a social science discipline or in-depth knowledge about the languages and cultures of specific regions. The range of research interests, expertise and resources in SOAS with regard to the languages and literatures of other regions, religious studies, anthropology, history, art and archaeology is unique in UK institutions and this gives you an unparalleled range of options from which to select your second subject of study.

Study Programme

Development Studies can be combined with the following subjects:

3-year combined degrees
African Studies, Bengali, Economics, Geography, Gujarati, History, Law, Linguistics, Music, Persian, Politics, Sinhalese, Social Anthropology, South Asian Studies, South East Asian Studies, Tamil, Urdu

3- or 4-year combined degrees
Burmese, Hindi, Indonesian, Nepali, Thai, Vietnamese

4-year combined degrees
Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Hausa, Korean, Swahili, Turkish

Course Information

In the three year degree students must take a total of 12 units, at least five of which should be in development studies. The four year versions include a year abroad.

Teaching & Assessment

All courses are taught in lecture format supplemented by weekly group tutorial/seminar sessions. Introductory courses make use of aidio-visual teaching materials alongside more conventional lecturing. Assessment is generally through a combination of written examination and coursework. In their final year students have the chance to complete an Independent Study Project, which takes the form of an extended 10 000 word essay supervised by a member of staff.

Special Features

Development studies at SOAS offers unrivalled regional specialisation and language combinations not found anywhere else in Europe.

Combined Honours
Year 1 Two of the following: Development conditions and experience Introduction to economic analysis Comparative economic development 2 units from other subject
Year 2 Theories of development (0.5 unit) Analytical methods and techniques in development (0.5 unit) One other development studies unit 2 units from other subject
Year 3 1 optional unit in Development studies + either 1 further optional unit in Development studies or 1 unit in another department 2 units from other subject

Further Information

Year 2 & 3 optional units:

• Politics of development
• The global refugee crisis
• An African or Asian language
• Directed readings in development studies (0.5 unit)
• Independent Study project
• Law and development
• NGOs, the 3rd sector and development policy
• Gender and development
• Anthropology of food
• Urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Taught at Kings College Geography Dept.
(Year of study indicated in brackets)

• Desert Environments (3)
• Ecological biogeography (2)
• Economic and Social Change in Southern Africa (3)
• Environmental Actors and Politics (2)
• Environment and development in Dryland Africa (3)
• Environmental Remote Sensing (2)
• Geographies of Money (3)
• Global Cities (3)
• Global environmental change I (2)
• Global environmental problems and policies (3)
• Historical geography of Latin America
• International migration in the Context of Uneven Development (can not be taken with Urban Worlds unit) (3)
• Japanese Environments (3)
• Landscape Ecology (3)
• Political goegraphy of South Asia (3)
• Rural Livelihoods in West Africa (3)
• Territoriality, State and Nation: Political Geography in the Developing World (2)
• Third World Political Ecology (3)
• Tropical Forests in a Changing Environment (3)
• Urban Japan (3)
  

Year Abroad
If Development Studies is combined with Amharic, Arabic, Chinese, Hausa, Korean, Swahili, Turkish

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Staff:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff.cfm?deptid=9

Entry Requirements:
A levels: BBC; IB: 31 points

Course Duration:
Combined Honours - 3 or 4 years

Language(s) of Instruction:

• English

Mode of Study:

• residential

Thematic Focus:

• Civil Society/NGO Management
• Development Economics
• Development Studies
• Environmental Issues
• Gender Issues
• Globalisation
• Governance
• Participatory Approaches
• Poverty Analysis
• Rural Development
• Social Policy and Development
• Urban Studies and Planning

Country(ies):

• United Kingdom

Town(s) or City(ies):
London

Course fees:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/studying/index.cfm?navid=472

Further Funding Information:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/studying/index.cfm?navid=472

Course's Webpage:
http://www.soas.ac.uk/studying/courseinfo.cfm?courseinfoid=93