The department is a lively community that is recognised internationally as one of the top centres for research and teaching in development studies.

Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
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.”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
Our courses offer excellent training for a career in international development or for advanced study, and attract students of the highest calibre from across the world.
“I had waited for 10 years before my dream to study in Oxford became a reality and the experience was truly beyond expectation”
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.”
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.”
After several years in the making, the new Young Lives book 'Tracing the Consequences of Child Poverty', or 'Tracing’, as we authors have come to call the volume, is published. What a journey it has been!...
'Can poverty be eradicated?' is the biggest question for development. Progress in poverty reduction was a central success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): estimates suggest that as many as ...
Would you say that a country was likely to reach any of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if it is affected by adverse geographical conditions, has a state apparatus perceived as chronically corrupt,...
Young Lives has just published ten updated case studies, each of which demonstrates how the study has resulted in significant positive...
'Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Additional choices include...
What makes you middle class? Is it your income, occupation, or education? Your family background or maybe the house and neighbourhood you live in? It is probably all of these things.
It is a widely accepted fact in academia and policy circles that Latin America has experienced important gains in human development outcomes over the last decade, mainly through the creation of new non-...
We know that children who grow up in poverty are disproportionately more likely to leave school early and less likely to enter post-secondary schooling. We also know that they are disproportionately more...
I spent much of last week in Addis Ababa at the ‘Putting Children First’ conference (for my hopes on this, see a blog written the week...
While most media attention at the United Nations General Assembly was focusing on President’s Trump’s first appearance at the UN, little attention was devoted to central themes, such as the fight against...
Two big reports are out this week – first, UNICEFs ‘State of the World’s Children’ report, and second (given I write from the UK), the UK’s own annual official statistical report on low incomes within the...
How social science research contributes to solving real world problems has always been a concern for researchers. Few people study social ills like poverty without wishing to contribute to policies and...
The Inter Agency Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators met for the second time in Bangkok, 26-28 October 2015. The purpose was to move towards the selection of the indicators that will be...
The end of the week sees the meeting to agree the Sustainable Development Goals. Don’t expect too many surprises; the document to be signed off has already been published. There are 17 proposed goals, with...
The way we define poverty has changed. At the Sustainable Development Summit on 25-27 September 2015, the UN will formally adopt a new sustainable development agenda that will include a goal to end poverty...
Poverty measures reported at the national level provide only a sketch of the reality poor people face. Multidimensional poverty estimations released on 22 June 2015 by the Oxford Poverty and Human...
Globally, corporal punishment is widely used in schools despite international concern about the effects on children and the implications for their capacity to benefit from school. And yet it persists....