MPhil in Development Studies

The MPhil in Development Studies is a one year, full-time highly inter-disciplinary course which gives its students a firm grounding in political economics relevant to the developing world, including the study of sociology, law, political science, management, economics and anthropology.

The inter-disciplinary approach is based on the recognition that together with the analytical rigour required of economists and other social scientists today, no important issue in development — poverty and inequality, population growth, the construction of the institutions of a market economy, war and human rights, democratisation — can be properly understood without an inter-disciplinary perspective.

The Course Director for 2026-27 is Dr Marthe Achtnich. 

Dissertation

All students will write a 15,000-word supervised dissertation. The dissertation provides the opportunity to investigate a subject of your own choice in detail. Dissertations are submitted in Easter term. The dissertation is a mandatory component of the MPhil in Development Studies.

Incoming students with questions about the dissertation should contact the Centre Administrator on admin@devstudies.cam.ac.uk.