Global Development with Politics with a Year Abroad

Global Development with Politics is a degree that takes the most urgent questions facing humanity and asks both what is happening and why. Global development is concerned with the uneven distribution of wealth, health, education, and power across the world, and with the political, economic, and social processes that produce and perpetuate that unevenness. Combining it with Politics gives you the analytical tools to understand why development outcomes are not simply technical problems waiting for technical solutions, but the products of contested political choices, institutional arrangements, and power relations at local, national, and international levels.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year full-time programme incorporates a year abroad, which is particularly significant for a degree in global development. Spending time in a different country, studying from a different national perspective, adds an experiential dimension that enriches your understanding of the development questions the programme raises. You will engage with development economics, political economy, the politics of aid and international institutions, social movements and civil society, and the particular challenges of specific regions and contexts.

The politics strand develops your understanding of comparative government, international relations, and the relationship between domestic politics and development trajectories.

UEA has a strong tradition in development studies, and its location in Norwich, combined with an international student body and faculty, creates a programme environment that takes the global dimensions of its subject seriously. You will develop skills in research, argument, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and the ability to engage with complex evidence about contested issues.

Graduates pursue careers in international development organisations, NGOs, the civil service, journalism, the UN system, research institutions, and think tanks. Many go on to postgraduate study in development studies, international relations, or public policy. The combination of analytical rigour and genuine international perspective is valued across all organisations concerned with global challenges.