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.”
A new article by Corneliu Bjola seeks to shed light on how we can measure the impact of digital diplomacy.
The issue of maximizing the impact and effectiveness of digital diplomacy is now high on the agenda of many ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs). But what impact means in the digital context, how to capture it and how best to make use of it are questions that nevertheless remain poorly understood.
Drawing heuristically on quantum theory, the article argues that the nature of the impact and the method of measuring it are two facets of the same ontological construct. The very act of measuring shapes the type of impact we may seek to capture. Getting digital diplomacy right on paper cannot therefore be reduced to an exercise of fine-tuning quantitative metrics. It involves a more complex approach that takes into account active listening to online conversations, careful prioritization of short and long-term objectives, hybridization of online/offline diplomatic agendas, mixed modes of engagement and creative mechanisms of adaptation.
'Getting digital diplomacy right: what quantum theory can teach us about measuring impact' is published in Global Affairs.