MA in Global Development

The need to improve living standards, health, and quality of life for people throughout the developing world in an environmentally sound manner is increasingly being recognized as a top priority by the global community. Heightened attention to addressing this challenge has in turn created a burgeoning need for professionals who can bring a varied combination of knowledge, skills, and practices to work in relief operations and development programs administered by NGOs, governments, and international aid and policy organizations, including in positions requiring economic analysis and quantitative research skills.

The Master of Arts in Global Development Policy degree program is designed to prepare students for a fast-growing number and variety of careers in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of development programs. A joint project of the School of Public Health and the departments of International Relations and Geography & Environment, these new programs will provide students with leading-edge exposure to a wide range of development-related knowledge and skills that are currently in demand. Students with an economics background may wish to consider the related Master of Arts in Global Development Economics described in the Economics section of this website.

Requirements

The MA in Global Development Policy is a three-semester program consisting of a total of twelve classes (48 credits). Students complete three core development policy courses, an economics course, a statistics/methods course, a final capstone course, sixteen credit hours of coursework in a chosen track, and eight credit hours of elective coursework. In addition, students must pass the IR Department’s foreign language examination.

Required Courses

Global Development Policy Core Requirements

  • GRS GE 756   Geography of Third-World Development
  • GRS IR 701    Introduction to International Relations
  • SPH IH 770    Poverty, Health, and Development

Economics Course

  • GRS IR 704    Global Economic and Development Policy

Statistics/Methods Course

  • All students will take a statistics/methods course. The specific course taken will depend on the track chosen by the student. See the section below on track courses for details.

Capstone Course

All students in both the Global Development Policy and the Global Development Economics programs take a capstone course in their second year, GRS IR 798 Global Development Capstone. This is a project-based course in which students, working in groups, design and carry out an interdisciplinary policy analysis comparable to those performed for a government or nonprofit agency.

Track Courses

Students in the Global Development Policy program choose to concentrate in one of three tracks: Governance and Political Economy, Environment and Development, or International Public Health. Each track includes a required statistics/methods class plus a further 16 credits of coursework, consisting of two or more required courses and one or more optional courses. Students take the required courses for their track and then select sufficient optional track coursework to bring their total credits in the track up to at least 16 credit hours (not including the credits for the statistics/methods class). The three tracks are detailed below.

Governance & Political Economy

Statistics/Methods Course
  • GRS IR 702    Research Methods for International Relations Practitioners
Required Track Courses
  • GRS IR 759    International Institutions for Finance Development, and Trade
  • GRS IR 789    Globalization, Governance, and Development
Optional Track Courses

Students choose two additional track courses. Track course listings can be found online at ir/graduate.

Environment & Development

Statistics/Methods Course
  • CAS GE 516    Multivariate Analysis
Required Track Courses
  • CAS GE 541    Economic Geography of Transport
  • CAS GE 542    Models of Urban Transportation Systems
  • GRS GE 913 or 914    Topics in the Geography of Development
Optional Track Courses

Students choose one additional track course. Track course listings can be found online at ir/graduate.

International Public Health

Statistics/Methods Course
  • SPH BS 701 (3 credits)    Elementary Biostatistics
    or     SPH BS 703 (4 credits)    Biostatistics
Required Track Courses
  • SPH EP 711 (3 credits)    Introduction to Epidemiology
  • SPH IH 704 (4 credits)    The Organization, Delivery, and Financing of Medical Care Services
  • SPH IH 871 (4 credits)    Program Evaluation
  • SPH PH 709 (4 credits)    The Biology of Public Health
Optional Track Courses

Students choose one additional track course. Track course listings can be found online at ir/graduate..

Elective Courses

Students take sufficient elective coursework to bring their total credit count up to 48 credits. For students in the Governance and Political Economy track and the Infrastructure and Environment track, this will mean two regular courses. Because the School of Public Health offers coursework with varying credits, the number of courses taken by students in the International Public Health track will vary, but students must take sufficient elective coursework to bring their total credit count up to at least 48 credit hours.

Elective coursework may be chosen from the optional track courses of any of the three tracks. Students are welcome to take coursework from outside of their own track, but they must satisfy any prerequisites for the courses that they take.

Elective coursework can also be selected from the graduate level regional studies offerings of a variety of departments at BU. An extensive listing of regional studies class offerings can be found by perusing the course listings for the various regional tracks of the IR Department’s MA in International Affairs degree program. Students may take any of the regional studies courses listed there and can also petition the IR Director of Graduate Studies for approval to take a regional studies class that is not on one of those lists.

Students may also talk with the coordinator for their track to inquire about the possibility of taking other coursework to fulfill the elective requirement, if that other coursework will fit within the intent of the degree program and will contribute to preparation of the students for their intended career paths.