King's College London

This Emerging Economies and International Development MSc is an interdisciplinary social science degree in international development with a distinct focus on middle-income countries. You’ll combine interdisciplinary training in subjects such as development theory and practice, political economy, poverty and inequality, gender, and social policy with applied case studies on a range of middle-income countries and regions.

You’ll look at countries that don’t depend heavily on aid and have their own internal engines of growth, to consider what we can learn from their experiences and development models. You’ll also get a rigorous training in research methods and analysis, with introductory and advanced modules teaching both qualitative and quantitative research skills, which you’ll then apply with a dissertation.

You’ll graduate from your Emerging Economies and International Development MSc with a broad range of skills, including research design, analysis and synthesis of information, qualitative and quantitative analysis, collaboration in a culturally diverse environment, verbal presentation and essay writing skills, among many others.

his Emerging Economies and International Development MSc examines critical development studies, providing a deep understanding of the Global South within the context of a globalist capitalist system to teach you a range of theoretical frameworks that allow you to explore this topic through different perspectives.

It’s your opportunity to explore key questions relating to international development. You’ll learn why some countries grow fast while others stagnate, and why some countries are more equal than others. You’ll study the development strategies that exist at national and international levels, and explore the historical developments that influence contemporary problems and solutions. You’ll discover how the world is reconfigured by changes in geopolitical relations and question whether economic growth is the main development goal or problem.

By focusing on middle-income countries, you’ll have the opportunity to reflect on successes and failures, as well as problems and solutions, in a world that actively seeks social, political, and economic change.

The multidisciplinary syllabus of this Emerging Economies and International Development MSc straddles a range of disciplines including politics, anthropology, sociology, economics, and history. The curriculum provides intellectual perspectives from both emerging and advanced economies and is taught by a truly diverse teaching body of experts from across the world.

Your studies will begin with a required module that explores topics in the analysis of emerging economies and the social science of development. Taught by different lecturers each week, it gives you a broad introduction to key themes as well as a variety of approaches and case studies.

Another required module focuses on development theory and emerging economies. You’ll examine what fosters economic development and what causes crises such as climate breakdown, sovereign debt, low female employment and low fertility. You’ll also look at why some states are more democratic and others more authoritarian and consider how culture shapes political contestation in places like Latin America, Indonesia and India.

You’ll also be required to take a research methods module, but you can choose whether to focus on qualitative or quantitative research at an introductory or advanced level. The qualitative modules examine methods such as participant observation, focus groups, interviews, thematic qualitative data analysis, and visual, embodied, and art-based methodologies. In contrast, the quantitative ones explore statistical tools and concepts, teaching you how to make statistical inferences, sample and extrapolate data, summarise and visualise data, construct confidence intervals, and consider the misuse of statistics. At the introductory level, you’ll be trained how to use these methods, as well as how to design your research, analyse and evaluate your data, and consider the ethics of research. The advanced modules will take your skills a step further and teach you how to appraise the quality of research, just like a scientific peer reviewer would.

You’ll then apply these skills by working on your own research project in the form of a dissertation.

The rest of your master’s in emerging economies and international development can be shaped by your own passions and interests. You’re invited to mix and match modules that cover research methods, development topics, development practice and specific regions to specialise further.

For example, if you want to focus on a specific region, such as Latin America, China, South Asia, or Africa, you can select tailored modules that specialise in these regions and learn from academics with expertise in these areas. You might want to focus on the environment and select modules that address questions of environment, development, and climate, or choose modules that examine global labour and development, feminist economics, and race and development.

It may also be possible to take a couple of modules from other departments across the university, subject to approval. This includes the chance to take an additional language module from the King’s Language Centre, with options including Arabic, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean and others.

When you study this Emerging Economies and International Development MSc, you’ll join a dynamic and innovative department that works closely with students to develop expertise in the field of international development and in middle-income countries that can be particularly attractive to the labour market.

You’ll be invited to attend the department’s active seminar series, where external speakers and authors present research and engage with current students and alumni. You’ll also get to learn more about potential career paths and the experiences of Emerging Economies and International Development MSc graduates, with alumni invited to discuss this each year.

Thanks to our location in the heart of London, there are a plethora of events happening on your doorstep. Whether that’s joining open events at nearby universities, signing up for opportunities at a variety of neighbouring institutions, or attending a range of events at King’s itself, there’s no shortage of ways to enhance your education.

You’ll graduate with a deeper knowledge of key contemporary issues, regional expertise, an understanding of research methods and a range of critical skills that you can apply in the development sector.