Polymer Materials Science and Engineering

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Course description

* The current impoverishment of more than 1.4 billion people presents the world with its single greatest moral challenge. Although progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals has been impressive in some parts of the world, they are unlikely to be met by 2015 across large swathes of sub-Saharan Africa - and even if they were, large numbers of people would remain trapped in chronic poverty, not least by the unequal sets of power relations that operate from local to global levels. The recent global financial crisis is likely to make things harder, leading rich countries to slash their aid budgets, reducing levels of foreign investment in poor countries and creating new forms of poverty in the global North and South. The challenge of understanding and tackling the problem of poverty is therefore an urgent one.
* The new, multidisciplinary MSc in Poverty and Development at IDPM is designed to help participants engage with this challenge in a critical and constructive way, by offering high-level academic training in a vibrant and stimulating environment. The Institute for Development Policy and Management and the University of Manchester are committed to becoming world leaders in poverty research and poverty studies. We currently host three international research institutes and centres which produce cutting-edge insights into poverty and strategies for its eradication.

Course aims The MSc in Poverty and Development aims to:

* Provide participants with critical and multidisciplinary insights into how poverty and development can be understood, measured and explained, and of the key strategies and approaches to promoting development and poverty reduction
* Enable students to develop their knowledge of the theory and practice of international development
* Enhance students' professional competency by imparting a set of relevant analytical techniques and approaches relevant to poverty and development. This includes competency in developing a reasoned argument, critically considering data sources and defending different approaches.
* Develop and enhance students' skills in gathering, organising and using evidence and information from a wide variety of sources.
* Enable students to apply research skills to a relevant research area, via their dissertation research.
* Encourage students to critically engage with key texts and to present their ideas coherently and persuasively in both oral and written format.

Module details All students will take the core course units: * Development Research or Research Skills for Economic Development *
* Poverty and Development: Concepts, Analysis and the International Policy Agenda
* Poverty and Poverty Reduction in Context
* Perspectives on Development or Economic Development and Research Skills for Economic Development *

*Students decide between the development economics route (Economic Development and Research Skills for Economic Development) or the social development route (Perspectives on Development and Development Research) Optional course units typically include:

* Citizen-Led Development
* Civil Society and Public Action
* Comparative Social Policy
* Critical Issues in Urban Inequality
* Development Macroeconomics
* Development Micoreconomics
* Environment and Development
* Gender and Development
* Growth, Development and Economic Transformation
* Introduction to Econometrics
* Microeconomic Theory
* Micro Finance
* Planning and Managing Development
* Politics and Development
* Poverty, Government Policy & Inequality in LDCs
* Meeting the Millennium Development Goals: The Anthropology of Development
* Reconstruction and Development
* Social Development: Analysis and Policy
* Trade Theory and Development
* Urban Development Planning in Cities of the South

Availability of course units may vary from year to year.

Academic entry qualification overview: Applicants should have a good first degree (minimum 2:1 or equivalent).Admission of candidates who do not meet this criterion may be approved if satisfactory evidence of postgraduate study, research or professional experience can be provided.English language: Applicants whose first language is not English should meet the following language requirements: * an IELTS Test score of 7.0 or more overall with a minimum writing score of 7 * or a TOEFL Test (Paper-based) score of 600 or more with a minimum score in Test of Written English of 5 * or a TOEFL Test (Computer-based) score of 250 or more with a minimum essay rating of 5 * or a TOEFL Test (Internet based) score of 100 or more with a minimum writing score of 25 * an NCUK PMP EAP Grade A Applicants whose language of academic instruction for at least 1 year has been English may be exempted from this requirement, at the discretion of the Institute. English Language Requirements CAE score: (read more) Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) is part of the Cambridge English suite and is targeted at a high level (IETLS 6.5-8.0). It is an international English language exam set at the right level for academic and professional success. Developed by Cambridge English Language Assessment - part of the University of Cambridge - it helps you stand out from the crowd as a high achiever. 60 (Grade C)