This exciting programme offers a challenging, multi-disciplinary exploration of international development, poverty, and economic and social change in non-western countries. Based upon the internationally recognised research expertise of the staff at the Department of Development Studies, the programme gives students the opportunity to explore social, political and economic changes in the developing world. It examines key issues and themes in international development, as well as analysing the roles and impact of a wide variety of formal and informal development actors. The BA programme in Development Studies is a combined honours degree, allowing students to blend a critical awareness of international development, with a solid grounding in another discipline or subject area. This allows Development Studies students to place the knowledge they gain as part of their degree within a specific regional, cultural or disciplinary context. The ability to combine Development Studies with the range of research, resource and teaching expertise in SOAS in regard to languages and literatures of Africa and Asia, religious studies, anthropology, history, art and archaeology, is unique to SOAS, and gives students an unrivalled range of options to choose from. Highlights include: Introductions to key issues in international development, such as gender and development; violence and conflict; environment and development; the role of aid and trade in promoting development; refugees and forced migration Exploring the history of development, and the interaction of changing theories of development with practice and policy The possibility of undertaking an independent study project, researching a development studies related topic of your own choosing The opportunity to specialise through a range of options, including HIV/AIDS and Development, Global Forced Migration and Development, Development Practice, NGOs and Development. See the BA Handbook for a full list of courses, including optional courses.

The Department of Development Studies at SOAS provides innovative and challenging teaching, fosters high-quality research and offers unrivalled regional specialisation and language combinations not found anywhere else in Europe. An undergraduate Development Studies degree from SOAS will develop your understanding of the world, other peoples’ ways of life and how society is organised, with specific focus on violence and conflict, the role of aid, refugees and forced migration. Skills gained during your degree will transfer well to areas such as human rights, international development and politics. This is in addition to your detailed subject knowledge, which will vary according to the regional and theoretical focus of your degree. Your degree will equip you with a set of specific skills, including: analytical and critical skills; the ability to think laterally and employ critical reasoning; a high level of cultural awareness; and the ability to solve problems. Choosing to study a joint degree programme will increase the breadth of your knowledge, and will develop additional skills with which to further your studies. Development studies may be combined with a huge range of other disciplines. For more information on the extra skills you will gain from your second subject, please see the relevant departmental page. Some graduates go on to work in development planning and in government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Other career paths include journalism, the civil service, banking and the social and educational services. Others are interested in specialising further through postgraduate studies, not only in Development Studies, but also in Economics, Politics, Social Anthropology, Law, Geography, History and languages.