* Visa/residence permit, Books
Academic Bachelor's degree
GMAT
Motivation and initiative
Academic Referee
In your application, you have to verify your English proficiency. You can do this by providing 1 of the following English proficiency test scores:
TOEFL IBT: a minimum of 92 points overall and a minimum of 22 points for each sub-score (TOEFL institution code: 9011). The TOEFL Home Edition is allowed for the September 2022 intake.
IELTS (Academic test): a minimum of 6.5 overall and a minimum of 6.0 for each sub-score. The IELTS indicator test is not allowed.
Cambridge Assessment English
Certificate in Advanced English: 180 points overall and in each skill or
Certificate of Proficiency in English: 180 points overall and in each skill.
Test scores must also conform to the following guidelines:
Make sure you schedule your English proficiency test before the application deadline.
Test scores received after the application deadline are accepted, as long as your English proficiency test was taken before the application deadline.
Your English proficiency test score cannot be more than 2 years old before the start date of your programme. For example, if you are applying for the September 2022 intake we do not accept English proficiency tests taken before September 2020.
Be sure to plan your test on time; test dates fill quickly and it can take several weeks for you to receive your results. Applications without a sufficient score or with a test date after the application deadline, will not be accepted.
Why is a Master International Development Studies needed?
In the contemporary global setting, the Global North and the Global South are interwoven through ideas, economics, institutions, value chains, and more. At the same time, the world is collectively facing growing uncertainty due to climate change, financial volatility, growing inequality, migration movements, changing political landscapes and conflict. Increasing global integration due to intensified forms of communication, shared interests, and shared challenges, along with expanding economies and ICT developments creates new realities for social life, in which the development issues of the global South – traditionally considered the proper domain for development studies – come closer to and intertwine with social, economic and political challenges in the global North. Contextualized by on-going tendencies to protect vested economic and political interests, resulting in increasing exclusion and inequality within and across populations in the South and the North, the demands for understanding what development means and whom it impacts are changing. Within this context, up-to-date expertise is needed in the broad arena of international development capable of challenging existing knowledge claims, discovering new ideas and knowledge; and contributing to new forms of pro-active governance that protects the interests of those who are excluded and/or adversely included in current development processes in different parts of the globe. In this way, development studies also needs to have a normative commitment to addressing inequalities and to promoting ecological and social justice in order to delivering graduates who are cognizant of today’s challenges.
What is the MIDS Programme?
The Master Programme in International Development Studies (MIDS) at the University of Amsterdam is a one-year, 60-credit, English-language programme which welcomes approximately 60 students per year, both Dutch and international students, and leads to an NVAO and EADI accredited MSc degree. It engages with development through a multi-disciplinary lens, meaning that development is not taught from a particular discipline, but is seen as being best understood through different disciplinary approaches. As such it offers a multi-disciplinary programme in terms of content, staff and the range of backgrounds of our participating students. The programme provides students with an understanding of the history and theories of development; the multi-scalar context of development processes and issues which recognizes the links between the global, national, urban and local levels; innovative and research-based teaching to familiarize students with the changing research context and emerging issues of development; academic and professional skills; and exposure to professionals working in the diverse and changing field of international development. Drawing on the multi-disciplinary features of the programme, development is presented and explored as a phenomenon that results from the interaction and unequal power relations between diverse rural and urban, local, national and international actors and processes, within context-specific institutional environments. Moreover, shifting power balances have resulted in a more multi-polar, polycentric world where governments increasingly work in partnership with other actors in shaping development processes and achieving development goals.
What can our students expect?
The MIDS programme produces graduates who can profile themselves as academic professionals. While the foundation of the MIDS programme is academic in nature, we recognize the need to prepare our graduates for post-graduate life and ensure that they will have the necessary range of qualifications for obtaining employment on an academic level, both within and outside of academia. Thus, the teaching programme equips the students with the knowledge, critical analytical skills, qualitative and quantitative research techniques, and professional skills to be competitive in the professional field of IDS, and to remain aware of the changing dynamics and demands in a constantly changing global society long after they graduate.
More information click :here
Programme outline
The Master’s programme begins once a year in September and runs for 12 months. Some students will be required to follow a half-year preparatory programme before being able to start the one-year Master’s programme. Please click below for an overview of the programme timeline.
First semester
In the first block of the programme, from September to the end of October, students take the comprehensive core course in which we discuss the theoretical foundations of International Development Studies (IDS), topical debates in the field of IDS, and look into the application of development theory to policy and practice. In addition to this, students take the research training and fieldwork preparation course during which time they begin thinking about their field research interests and confirm who their thesis supervisor will be. In the second block of the programme (from November to the end of December), students take two elective courses (please see link below for the selection of elective courses offered in the coming academic year), and the second half of the research training and fieldwork preparation course. Simultaneously, students will begin drafting their research proposals which will be finalized by mid-January before they leave for fieldwork.
Second semester
During the second semeseter, beginning mid-January, students will carry out their fieldwork and write up their thesis. Students return from the field in the last week of March in order to begin with the Thesis Seminar, which supports students in the writing process. Students will also meet once a week for the Policy and Practice seminar in which they get exposure to what is happening in the professional field of development and can start thinking about what steps they will want to take after completing the programme.
Fieldwork and Thesis
Together, the fieldwork and the master's thesis come to 24 credits. The thesis is based on the student’s independent fieldwork research and gives the student the opportunity to combine theory with their own empirical findings. It is carried out by the student under the supervision of a faculty member. As students consider applying to the programme, they are encouraged to look at the fieldwork guide from the previous year to see what kind of topics have been offered at that time. While some topics may change slightly from one year to the next, the fieldwork guide gives a clear overview of what students can expect. For the most part, students will join into existing projects or topics found in the fieldwork guide which largely correspond with the GID Research Group. There is some space in the programme for students who wish to pursue additional topics outside of these selections, but it is important to be aware that finding expertise supervision may be more difficult, and students will have to draw more on their own networks and options for arranging the fieldwork. The Master's thesis with a required length of 20,000-25,000 words.
Career prospects
We aim to prepare our students to be academic professionals. Together with the professional field, we have found that graduates from a one-year academic master programme should have a sound knowledge of the field of International Development Studies, academic skills, research and professional skills, conscientiousness, creativity, and an ethical foundation to make sound, socially conscious judgments. These are high ambitions, but we want to support our students in reaching them.
Our students find interesting and challenging work after graduating in a range of sectors. These include, but are not limited to:
Non-governmental organizations such as Food First Coalition, War Child or the Red Cross, among others.
Government ministries, embassies, and other agencies
Scientific organizations such as the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
Academic and research institutes including the University of Amsterdam and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT)
Private sector consultancy in banks, law firms, or consultancy firms
Knowledge sharing and journalism such as the Broker
Insurance: €420 per year
