Developing the Global Outlook

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 3, No. 2  12 May - 9 June 2008 ]

Concern to understand the global political economy and its impacts on the developing world’s poor has seen emerge over the past 20 or so years the major cross-disciplinary field of Development Studies.

Key issues in Development Studies include governance and civil society, human rights, poverty, food and environmental security, HIV/AIDS and other major health issues. The field draws on expertise from disciplines which include Anthropology, Economics, Political Science and Sociology.

Development Studies at the University of Melbourne is a Faculty of Arts Masters program. Director of the Development Studies program, Professor Andrew Dawson, holds Melbourne’s Chair of Anthropology and is an expert on migration and post-war reconstruction in the post-Communist world.

Professor Dawson says Development Studies, which has always appealed to students from developing countries, increasingly now draws students from Australia, North America and Western Europe.

“I think there is little doubt that globalisation has created a new generation of students who appreciate better the world’s interconnectedness, their moral responsibility to act as global citizens and the need to engage more actively, both intellectually and practically, with the developing world,” he says.

Professor Dawson says Development Studies at Melbourne, though intrinsically interdisciplinary, is increasingly anthropologically driven.

“Its focus is on how the world-views of ordinary people in the developing world may be used both to hinder or productively inform indigenous and exogenous development processes.”

The program balances theory and practice. Attention to practice, Professor Dawson claims, is the program’s greatest strength. Students are equipped with core skills such as in microfinance, project design and project evaluation.

They are provided also with the contacts required for practical engagement in the development sector. This includes incorporating sector partners in curriculum design and mounting collaborative University-Development Sector training programs and internship programs.

Students gain several months of hands-on experience with sector organisations, such as AUSAID, Oxfam, World Vision, Australia Red Cross, Asian Development Bank, UNHCR, and UNESCO.

“Through internships our students have become much sought after in the sector,” Professor Dawson reports. “Indeed, most of our students remain in the development field, either in academic research or in development practice.”

He says the Development Studies program’s ‘Melbourne DS-network’ enables alumni and current students to share experiences and exchange information and opportunities on-line.

“Our graduates are increasingly influential in the sector, working in a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organisations in contexts as diverse as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, East Timor, India, Maldives, PNG, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam,” he says.