A School of Development Studies

Broadly, we examine change in society and systems mostly but not exclusively applied to developing countries - and countries with transitional economies - in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To study development, we combine knowledge from geography, politics, anthropology, sociology, economics, international and global studies, and natural and environmental sciences. We are particularly interested in poverty but also associated issues:- health, gender, education, agriculture, media, climate change, globalisation, conflict and rural development to name a few. We explore ideas such as sustainability, equity, resilience, allocation, power and justice, plus how understandings are expressed through policy - and we do this at the local, regional and global scale. In short, we aim to make a difference.

Our approach

We are a single, coherent University department dedicated to the study and teaching of international development. Apart from the joint degrees, all our degrees are taught by our own academic staff. With this identity, DEV is profoundly committed to inter/multi-disciplinary research and excellence in teaching. Our values and innovative approach have been developed over a forty year period, bringing together researchers and students from different disciplines (economists, social scientists, natural resource scientists) into close-knit and overlapping research areas and teaching teams.

We are also particularly proud of our direct engagement with communities, individuals and policy in developing countries and we bring back this experience directly into our teaching. This relationship between teaching, research and policy advising is achieved because our teaching faculty also work for the Overseas Development Group (ODG), an in-house charitable organisation that handles the research, consultancy and training undertaken by our staff.