Introduction to the programme
Are you passionate about understanding global development trends? Are you enthusiastic about analysing global social, political, and economic actors, relations, and institutions, including their histories and contemporary manifestations? And do you want to learn how to address these issues? Then Global and Development Studies is an MA programme for you.
Global and Development Studies offers cutting-edge academic training in analysing, assessing, and addressing current global changes and how they affect people’s lives around the world. Questions of justice, inequality, conflict, and sustainability as well as their effects on states, markets, and civil society will be central to your studies.
You will acquire knowledge about global and development processes across local, national, regional, and international levels and learn how these processes are manifested differently in specific sites around the world. You will also acquire practical skills that enable you to analyse and critically reflect on issues and problems, such as climate change, conflict and peace-making, development aid, disaster management, economic transformation, human rights, inequality, mobility, social movements, and sustainability.
The master’s programme is interdisciplinary, combining the fields of global and development studies. It also draws on international relations, political economy, political science, sociology, and anthropology. You will meet the interdisciplinary approach in your taught classes and apply it actively in your project work.
Mandatory study activities provide an academic common ground while elective courses allow you to pursue your specific empirical, theoretical, and methodological interests. The development of your own academic profile is particularly ensured through the project work where you and your project team of fellow students investigate a problem of your own choosing. While guided by a supervisor, you will design, prepare, and execute your project.
The project work trains your use of theory, social science methods, and analytical approaches and equips you with collaborative and leadership competences. It also assures that you are well versed in the art of communicating your results in writing and defending them during an oral exam.
By joining the Global and Development Studies programme, you will be part of a culturally and linguistically diverse study environment. This gives you essential social competences for pursuing a professional career in an international context.
Study environment
Being a student at Global and Development Studies involves many activities. You attend lectures and seminars, prepare readings, have study groups discussions and complete exercises. You do project work in teams. The project work involves several steps (designing, executing, analysing, reporting, presenting), each of which involves discussions and decisions. During the process you will receive supervision and discuss your work with other teams. You may also prepare an internship stay, engage in extracurricular student activities, or attend academic or social events arranged by faculty members or fellow students.
Career and qualifications
Upon completing the Global and Development Studies programme you will be able to appropriately select theories, methods, and analytical strategies allowing you to assess social, political, and economic processes that characterise global and development challenges. More concretely you will have acquired competencies to:
- Plan and manage projects
- Conduct evaluations
- Gather, prepare, and present data to shed light on an issue
- Write up policy briefs
- Give policy advice
- Handle complex and unpredictable tasks
- Initiate and execute interdisciplinary and professional cooperation
Global problem solvers are employed in private companies, the public sector, international organisations, NGOs, and more. Tasks commonly involve preparing and conducting analyses and evaluations, coordinating initiatives, and giving advice. Job titles include policy analyst, public affairs consultant, policy advisor on peace and security, international financial officer, data analyst, foreign service officer or international project manager.
Brochure about programme
Study Programme
| 1. year | 2. year | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Semester | 2. Semester | 3. Semester | 4. Semester |
Course Foundation Course in Global and Development Studies 10 ECTS |
Course
Elective course within Current Global and Development Challenges and Solutions 10 ECTS |
Choose A, B or C
3. semester A Courses Elective course within Current Global and Development Challenges and Solutions 10 ECTS Policy Analysis 5 ECTS Elective course within Advanced Methods Course 5 ECTS Project Current Global and Development Challenges Project 10 ECTS or 3. semester B Courses Elective course within Current Global and Development Challenges and Solutions 10 ECTS Policy Analysis or elective course within Advanced Methods Course 5 ECTS Internship Project-oriented Internship 15 ECTS or 3. semester C Internship Project-oriented Internship 30 ECTS |
Master thesis
Thesis in Global and Development Studies 30 ECTS |
| Course
Project Management and Evaluation 5 ECTS |
Course
Power, Conflict and Justice 5 ECTS |
||
| Course
Sustainability, Development and Inequality 5 ECTS |
Course
Elective course within Advanced Methods Course 5 ECTS |
||
| Project
Project linked to Sustainability, Development and Inequality 10 ECTS |
Project
Project in Economic and Social Contestation 10 ECTS |
||
* The study programme shows study activities as they are placed, if you begin you studies in the autumn semester. If you begin your studies in the spring semester, the project and the bottom 2 courses of the 1st semester will instead be placed in the second semester - and vice versa.
Study regulations: Study regulation for Global and Development Studies (pdf)
Does women's inclusion in peacekeeping processes lead to more sustainable outcomes
Private sector and SDG: Can the market do what states and civil society cannot?
Decolonising development aid: Unpacking North-South donor-recipient "partnerships" and power imbalances
Arctic just transition: Companies, EU, and people – mining prospects vs climate changes
Playing a modern game of slavery? A case study of the use of forced labour in Qatar
Transit-migration in Central America: The political economy of migration in pandemic times
Stalemate in global governance: Is the world order eroding or becoming more pluralist?
Internship and stay abroad
You can choose to spend a semester travelling with your education. Either as an internship at one of our partner companies or at a company that you find yourself. You test your academic and procedural skills in a job, make valuable contacts, and find out whether it is a future career path for you. You can also choose to take a semester of exchange at a partner university abroad, where you can gain international outlook, experience and network.
Master’s degree from Roskilde University - why?
You will be part of a strong academic environment where you will be in close contact with researchers, in dialogue about everything from academic issues, possible methods and theories, ways to create new insights and your wishes for the academic direction of your master’s degree study. You will become part of a social environment typically centred in one building on campus, where researchers and students work next door to each other. You will study within the university's project format, where identification of a problem, in-depth analyses, choice and implementation of a methodological approach, as well as setting up a strong theoretical framework are your responsibilities under academic guidance from a researcher. You will participate in a number of courses which expand your methodological and theoretical knowledge. During a semester, you will identify a significant problem within your subject field and develop the knowledge to produce scientific arguments for possible solution(s). You will gain concrete experience with the entire scientific process.
Student life
Roskilde University’s Campus
The university is situated on one single physical campus. There are multi-purpose sports courts, a football field, a disc golf course, nature trails along the lake, stream and the fields, a training centre, innovation workshops, a canteen, and a cinema. Our joint meeting place is called Student House RUC, where there is a student-run café and lounge. Both outdoors and indoors, we work to make the campus as sustainable as possible. Among other things, we have reduced energy consumption by 38 percent over the last 5 years and are converting our outdoor areas to wild nature.
Get inspired: Other options
Other international master's programmes
Other enrolment opportunities at Roskilde University
Roskilde University welcomes both exchange and guest students and you will find suggestions for semester packages taught in English.
Do you want to know more?
Contact the Study Guidance office
Contact us if you need advice on choosing a course of study, more information about the content of a degree, or about applying and admission to Roskilde University.
Contact the Study Guidance office
Meet us
See if there are current events that might be something for you. For example, participate in Open House, see the campus, and meet teachers and students.
Ready to apply?
Read all about requirements and admission to Roskilde University's master's programmes.