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.”
Our work engages with some of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century: from security and global governance, to migration and human rights; from poverty and inequality to technological innovation and enterprise; from children and youth to urban transformation.
Our approach is unique because we address the structural roots of poverty and power on the one hand, and the international as well as the national dimensions of development on the other. We value field experience, primary data collection, comparative research, novel methodologies and innovative theory and analysis.
Our research is clustered around four major thematic areas, which are in turn embedded in, and illuminated by, the study of specific regions of the developing world. You can find out more about our research themes and regions using the links to the left.
You can also find out about the work of our externally funded research groups and major projects, where a large part of our research activity is carried out, as well as exploring the real-world impact of our findings.
Alternatively, browse all our research activity below.