International Development

Departmental website: lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment

Number of graduate students (full-time equivalent)
Taught: 214
Research: 20

Number of faculty (full-time equivalent): 35

REF: 81 per cent of the Department's research was rated world-leading or internationally excellent

Location: Connaught House

About the Department

The Department of International Development promotes interdisciplinary graduate teaching and research on processes of social, political and economic development and change. The Department is dedicated to understanding problems of poverty and late development within local communities, as well as national and international political and economic systems.

Research and teaching is concerned with the causes of poverty, social exclusion, economic stagnation, humanitarian crises and human security. We aim to provide our students with an understanding of why and how some late developing countries have succeeded in overcoming these problems while others have not or have seen their progress derailed by disasters and conflicts.

The Department conducts research and teaching across six broad themes: complex emergencies, security, and humanitarianism in war-torn societies; comparative politics of development; governance, civil society, and informal politics; development management; development economics; and the politics of global health. Faculty have considerable experience of living and working in the developing world, and most have engaged in policy relevant research and consultancy work with international development agencies or non-governmental organisations.

MRes/PhD International Development

Visiting Research Students

The Department of International Development has established a vibrant MRes/PhD programme with students employing a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary methods from across the social sciences to research questions of development around the globe.

The MRes programme is the entry point to the research stream and is designed to both train you in a common academic heritage and to provide significant flexibility to develop advanced methodological and theoretical skills within disciplinary specialisms appropriate to your research interests.  In addition, you will develop any necessary language skills and background knowledge of specific topics related to your research. You will also participate in a research student seminar series.

You will need to meet certain criteria set by the Department, including achieving a certain mark in your PhD proposal, in order to progress to the PhD portion of the programme.

Taught programmes

• MSc African Development
• MSc Development Management
• MSc Development Studies
• MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies
• MPA International Development

In addition to the programmes listed above, the Department contributes to:

• MSc Anthropology and Development
• MSc Environment and Development
• MSc Political Economy of Late Development
• MSc Population and Development
• MSc Social Policy and Development (Non-Governmental Organisations) 
• MSc Urbanisation and Development