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 book brings together the latest findings from Young Lives on how poverty affects children's development and how children and their families respond to poverty in their daily decisions and daily lives.
Growing Up in Poverty: Findings from Young Lives, edited by Michael Bourdillon and Jo Boyden, is published by Palgrave Macmillan.
The book shows how, amid general economic growth, many poor children are being left behind despite the promises of the Millennium Development Goals. While the universalisaton of education now means that most children attend school, at least for a while, children from disadvantaged backgrounds often experience poor-quality education and learn least in school, creating inequality of opportunity.
Changing values, and the growing belief in education as a route of out poverty, raise questions about how children's early circumstances and experiences, and the choices open to them, affect their later outcomes and well-being in adolescence and early adulthood.
Find out more