Global Development

Core modules

Global Development Foundations

This module provides an introduction to the field of global development. You will explore the concept of development, learn about the key methodological tools used to understand and evaluate development, and examine the key drivers of underdevelopment. You will also gain an understanding of the role that key stakeholders such as government institutions, aid agencies, NGOs, and private businesses play in the field of development.

Colonial Legacies

Understand the legacies of colonialism as you explore the global and local economic, political, social, environmental, and cultural effects of colonialism. You will also undertake a field trip to a local heritage site where you will develop materials to communicate the colonial history of a chosen artefact.

Climate change, sustainability, and biodiversity

Examine some of the key global environmental challenges, and how colonial legacies and inequalities such as gender, race and socioeconomic status fuel contemporary environmental crises.

Intercultural Communication

Explore your own cultural background and how it intersects with others as you learn to critically analyse (inter)cultural situations, understand the processes of cultural stereotyping, and foster positive social change in your everyday life. You will also work with students and lecturers from one of our European partners.

Mapping global movements

Explore the pattern of global movement and the dynamics of people, cargo, capital, information, and cultural flows through the use of digital mapping. You will develop both basic project management skills and data-visualisation techniques, with critical understanding of maps as powerful tools to illustrate and reinforce networks, flows and power structures in the digital era.

Optional modules

Choose one of the following:

Sustainability in culture and society

Learn about the broad concepts of sustainability and its historical footprint, by working alongside community-led enterprises and relevant charities which work both locally and internationally.

Ethics in the 21st Century

Gain a grounding in the major approaches to moral theory in order to examine the ethical dimensions of some of the central problems of the 21st Century. Topics addressed  will include environmental ethics and sustainability, business ethics, and the ethics of inclusion and diversity.

University Language Programme

The University Language Programme (ULP) is available to all students and gives you the option of learning a totally new language or improving the skills you already have. Learning a new language can enhance your communication skills, enrich your experience when travelling abroad and boost your career prospects. Find out more about the ULP.

Core modules

Global Development: Research and Project Management

In this module, you will learn a range of practical skills for carrying out research in a development context, including building on the project management skills you learned in Year One.

Inequalities and Development

Examine and critically reflect on some key axes of inequality such as gender, race and class, and how they operate within and influence global development policy and organisations. Supported by the module leaders, you will work with an external organisation in a consultancy role on a key brief related to inequality and participation.

Social Economies and Participatory Approaches

Explore the concept of the social economy, and how development can work within communities. Particularly examining work in Europe and Latin America, you will look at the benefits and challenges to access for a range of social enterprises, like eco-localism, housing collectives, and micro-credit and how such economies can be governed.

Optional modules

Choose three from the following:

Global Development Discourses

Learn to understand local and global political and development issues in relation to individual experiences, group-formation, and intercultural communication, as well as broader discourses and narratives on culture, identification and belonging. How do these become normalised? And how might online and offline activism intervene in and change powerful narratives?

Imagining the Sustainable World

We live in an era of significant challenges to the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants – from global warming, water pollution and energy shortages, to poverty, gender inequality and conflict. In this moment of crisis, this module will examine how writing from a range of eras and genres might offer insights, warnings, possibilities, sources of hope, and solutions to contemporary problems.

Ethics, Equality and Human Rights

In this module you will examine the philosophical underpinnings of human rights and the ideal of human equality, and the issues they give rise to today - from their application in business and war, to the moral status of non-human animals..

Global Environmentalism

In this module you will develop an understanding of the human impact on the environment from the 15th Century to the present as a form of slow but sustained violence enacted against the planet. It will also explore how such long-term change can interact with social justice in the present day.

Money Matters: Finance Past and Present

See how historical processes affect global economics and capital flows, using your knowledge and skills to engage with financial data in real time. Through this module you will gain insights into financial management, financial markets, the causes and consequences of fluctuations in financial markets, and the performance of different types of investment over time.

University Language Programme

Continue your learning by taking the next stage of your chosen language, or begin a completely different one.

You may choose to take an optional year-long placement in Year Three, either in the UK or overseas.

You will be supported by our experienced Employability Team to source a suitable placement.

Core modules

Research project

Demonstrate the knowledge, understanding and skills you have gained in Global Development and further develop them to create a substantial and independent piece of research on a relevant topic of your choice. You can complete this either in the traditional form of a written dissertation, or in an alternative format such as a publication, film, or podcast with a smaller written element. You will be guided through your research by your supervisor. You can also develop your project with or for an external partner, for instance with a company you have worked for during a placement, or a charity you have volunteered with.

Global Development in Action

This personalised module allows you to develop activities according to your needs and aspirations. You will complete a minimum of 80 hours of work-like experience either in the UK or overseas which could include activities such as formal training, placements, employer projects, community-engaged learning, volunteering or campaigning.

Optional modules

Choose three from the following:

Natural Futures? Global Environmental Catastrophes and the Fate of Life on Earth

Environmental catastrophe is the key global challenge of the 21^st century, representing an existential threat to both human and non-human life. This threat is bewildering and frightening in its scope, with problems such as global heating, pollution, loss of biodiversity and challenges to food and water security all having a huge impact on both human societies and the natural world on which those societies rely. This module will feature guest talks and sessions to help you understand the roots of environmental catastrophe, comprehend the shape it takes today, and envisioning a range of possible future scenarios for a new flourishing of life on Planet Earth.

Legacies and Memories of Conflict

Examine the issue of conflict, its legacies and memorialisation in a variety of settings and contexts. You will focus on a series of historical struggles from around the world and use them to interrogate what happened and why before analysing their traces and consequences in their respective post-conflict eras.

The Global Struggle for Civil and Human Rights

What is the difference between Civil and Human Rights? Why do campaigns for Civil Rights lead to conflict? Why are Human Rights a source of political controversy? In this module, you will examine the long struggle for civil and human rights within different national and transnational contexts from African slavery and its legacies to broader contemporary issues of equality, inclusion and justice.

Global Ethics and Social Justice

Examine the theories that inform the global ethics perspective in order to develop a toolkit that can be used to better understand and engage with specific real-world cases about the moral and political aspects of international organizations and global governance, colonialism, immigration, economic inequality, and gender justice.

The Rise of East Asia

Delve deeper into the rise of Asia and its growing interactions with different world regions, trans-regional economic integration within Asia and the "Asian values" debate.  Covering geography, population, economy, environmental issues, philosophy, power, and politics, you will look at national/international rivalry both within Asia and across the Western world.

University Language Programme

Continue your learning by taking the next stage of your chosen language, or begin a completely different one.