International Development in the Americas MSc
This MSc combines theory and practice to prepare professionals capable of tackling today's most important development challenges including inequality, sustainability, migration, and inclusive growth.
Schedule a call to discuss your application
About this degree
This degree provides an interdisciplinary understanding of the most pressing global development challenges, from reducing inequality to tackling climate change, and how these play out in the Americas.
Students are encouraged to think critically about development and actively consider the institutions, actors, and interests that enable and hinder efforts to build economically prosperous, socially just, and environmentally sustainable societies.
The programme combines theoretical and practical instruction, providing a strong foundation for a successful career in various organisations of the development sector, including international cooperation agencies, NGOs and think-tanks, government offices, corporate and financial institutions, and specialised media.
Students are exposed to the most influential development theories from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws insights from political economy, economics, political science, sociology, history, and anthropology.
The programme also features an Annual Lecture with world-leading scholars and provides complementary instruction in social science research methods.
Students are also introduced to the practical frameworks currently used by prominent development organisations to design, manage, and evaluate development programmes, projects, and advocacy campaigns. Practical skills are further developed during student visits to leading development organisations in London as well as seminars focused on the analysis of prominent development policies.
Student visit to the Bretton Woods Project, the leading watchdog of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (London, October 2025)
The programme’s core module entitled ‘International Development: Theory, Policy and Practice’, provides a solid introduction to prominent development approaches and the most influential frameworks used by development practitioners before delving into the most pressing development challenges today, such as promoting climate justice, reducing inequalities, achieving inclusive growth, defending human rights, etc.
Students can tailor their learning experience according to particular thematic interests and career aspirations by strategically choosing their optional modules, including policy design options in collaboration with the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).
Examples of optional modules include:
- Latin American Economics
- Environment and Development in Latin America: Revisiting the Open Veins
- The Politics of Human Rights in Latin America: Challenges to Democratization
- Gender, Politics, and Public Policy in Latin America
- (In)Security in the Americas: Transnational Challenges
- The International Politics of Latin America
- Histories of Exclusion: Race and Ethnicity in Latin America
- The Latin American City: Social Problems and Social Change in Urban Space
- The Caribbean from the Haitian Revolution to the Cuban Revolution
- Environment and Science in the Making of Modern Latin America
- Making Decisions: Evidence and Evaluation (Policy Design module at IIPP)
- Transformation by Design (Policy Design module at IIPP)
Based in the UK’s largest hub for the study of the Americas, the programme offers unmatched expertise on the economic, political, social, and environmental dimensions of development processes shaping societies in the Americas. As evidenced in the REF2021, staff who deliver this programme have produced world-leading research that has shaped the development studies literature as well as informed the development policy of governments and NGOs. They have also provided expert advice and policy recommendations to the United Nations, the UK’s FCDO, Ministries throughout the Americas, and other renowned NGOs such as Oxfam.
Graduates of this MSc programme have successfully secured employment in international development organisations (e.g. UNDP, Red Cross), governmental bodies (e.g. FCDO, Banco de Mexico), NGOs operating in various countries (e.g. CAFOD, Stockholm Environment Institute), and media organisations (e.g. The Guardian Brazil). Others have pursued further studies at doctoral level at the most prestigious universities in the UK and the US.
Prospective students are more than welcome to contact the Programme Director, Dr Enrique Castañón Ballivián, for further information.
Testimonials
Jack, tells us what you can expect from the International Development in the Americas MSc and the aspects of the programme he has found most valuable.
Read testimonials from our alumni about their time at UCL Americas
Study abroad
Many of our Master’s students undertake fieldwork in order to carry out research for their dissertation projects. Here, former student Maria tells us about her fieldwork trip to Costa Rica.
Fieldwork Abroad Testimonial: Maria
Meet the Programme Director
Dr Enrique Castañón Ballivián is a Lecturer in International Development at the UCL Institute of the Americas. He joined UCL in 2022 after four years of teaching at SOAS’s Department of Development Studies where he completed his PhD funded by a SOAS Research Studentship. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Chevening Scholarship to read an MSc in Environment and Development at King’s College London which he passed with distinction.
Contact information
General Enquiries
Email: ia-programmes@ucl.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7679 9746
UCL Institute of the Americas, 51 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PN