Dr Stuart Gordon CON.8.02

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Development Management (LSE and Sciences Po). This course is available on the MSc in Development Management. This course is not available as an outside option.

This unit is a compulsory core half unit course for the MSc Development Management. Students work on a consultancy report in Autumn and Winter Terms.

Students will gain practical experience of dealing with current policy issues and best practice in the field of international development by working as a part of a team on a live consultancy project for a real client. The consultancies are based around an experiential learning format. Clients provide Terms of Reference for the student groups to work on. Students receive guidance from academic staff through a structured supervision process and support from a staff coach through formal workshops.

Students are allocated to consultancy teams usually comprising between three and six people. Students can express preferences for particular clients but may not be allocated to one of these. The roster of clients and projects changes every year.

The consultancy project begins in Autumn Term with client reports due in the Winter Term. The client report and final presentation form part of the assessment.

This course is delivered through a combination of 7 lectures and student led workshops in the AT and 3 problem-solving workshops in the WT. Consultancy groups will meet for two hours every week from week 2 -11 in the AT and the weekly activities will be published on the course Moodle page. There will be a minimum of 4 lectures, 2 problem solving workshops, student inception report presentations and a range of scheduled but unsupervised activities. There will be three scheduled problem-solving workshops in the WT.

Autumn Term

Weeks 2, 3, 4 and 5: 2-hour Skills lectures

Week 6: Reading Week

Weeks 7 & 8: Problem solving workshops

Weeks 11: Inception report presentations

Winter Term

Weeks 1, 3 and 7: Problem solving workshops.

Final presentations in week 11.

Students will participate in workshops to assist student groups to formulate their proposals and negotiate their projects with their commissioning agencies.

There is no specific reading for this course as this will reflect the specific project Terms of Reference that students work to.

Project (70%, 8000 words), other (10%) and group presentation (20%) in the WT.

Other (10%) = individual contribution

Final client presentations are at the end of the Winter Term and are scheduled by the students in consultation with academic staff and the client. Students should be aware that presentations to clients may have to take place in the week after the end of WT, and students should plan accordingly and be available to participate if required.