The department is a lively community that is recognised internationally as one of the top centres for research and teaching in development studies.
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Our students are taught to develop as critical and independent thinkers and when they leave us they are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to bring about real change.
“My time at Oxford strengthened my critical analysis and provided me with a unique interdisciplinary grounding in history, politics and economics that has equipped me well in dealing with public policy issues and program development strategy.”
Mayur Patel, DPhil 2011
Marco Haenssgen
Postdoctoral Scientist – Health Policy and Systems, University of Oxford
Year(s):
2012
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15
I came to Oxford with a management background and wanted to deepen my knowledge in international development, for which I had developed a strong interest during and after my undergraduate degree. I chose the Oxford Department of International Development (ODID) specifically because it offered interdisciplinary perspectives on development within an in-depth, two-year MPhil programme. My MPhil studies involved research on disease eradication in India, after which I continued with DPhil research on the influence of mobile phones on people’s health behaviour in rural India and rural China.
With this background, I had the exciting opportunity to take up a three-year position in global health training and research at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health (CTMGH) at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and the CABDyN Complexity Centre at the Said Business School. In my role as Postdoctoral Scientist, I now teach students from low- and middle-income countries on the linkages between international development and health, and I carry out research at this interface with a focus on human behaviour, technology, and processes of marginalisation. Among others, I am presently working on a research project on antibiotic usage in northern Thailand, being part of a team of medical researchers and health economists. Leading the social research component of this study, I use qualitative and quantitative methods to understand whether new medical procedures help healthcare workers (eg nurses) to prescribe antibiotics more appropriately, and how patients respond to such changing practices.
The current research environment in the UK calls increasingly for interdisciplinary work that has an impact on the world and especially on low- and middle-income countries.The training I received at ODID speaks directly to these demands and provided me with a solid foundation for interdisciplinary collaboration. The MPhil and DPhil enable students to learn the 'language' and methods of different academic fields like economics, anthropology, or public health. Working across these disciplines is not easy, but with the right training it can be immensely enriching.
The current research environment in the UK calls increasingly for interdisciplinary work that has an impact on the world and especially on low- and middle-income countries. The training I received at ODID speaks directly to these demands.