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Course type
Certificate
Credits
60

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
How long it takes
Minimum – 9 months
Study method
Distance learning
Course cost
See Fees and funding
Entry requirements
Find out more about
Entry requirements

Postgraduate Certificate in Global Development Management

Course code: K38

The world is at a turning point with humanity facing unprecedented Global Challenges. This postgraduate certificate in global development management critically engages with the complex and contested policies and practices of ‘development’ whilst helping you build the core knowledge and capacities you need to analyse, evaluate and manage humanity’s efforts to bring about positive change. Building on the global agenda for sustainable development, it assumes that development management is a political and ethical process, a matter of the use of power to bring about desired goals in contexts characterised by conflicts of interests, values, and agendas. You’ll learn a range of skills needed by a development manager or practitioner to do with strategic thinking, research, advocacy, planning, policy making and evaluation.

  • Explores the complexity of ‘development’ locally and globally.
  • Critically analyses development management, challenges conventional thinking, and encourages the creation of better approaches.
  • Builds a range of understandings and skills – conceptual, professional, and practical – for managing development.
  • Promotes competence in using key tools that contribute to development management practice.
  • Makes links between academic learning and professional practice, to the benefit of both.
Course type
Certificate
Credits
60

Credits

  • Credits measure the student workload required for the successful completion of a module or qualification.
  • One credit represents about 10 hours of study over the duration of the course.
  • You are awarded credits after you have successfully completed a module.
  • For example, if you study a 60-credit module and successfully pass it, you will be awarded 60 credits.
How long it takes
Minimum – 9 months
Study method
Distance learning
Course cost
See Fees and funding
Entry requirements
Find out more about
Entry requirements

How to register

Select the module you will study first, read the full description, and follow the instructions to register.

Modules

To gain this qualification, you need 60 credits from the following:

Compulsory module Credits Next start
Global development in practice (D890)  

Discover the conceptual framework for analysing the contexts in which development takes place and development management practice.

See full description

Register
 60 02 Oct 2023

You should note that the University’s unique study rule applies to this qualification. This means that you must include at least 20 credits from OU modules that have not been counted in any other OU qualification that has previously been awarded to you.

Learning outcomes, teaching and assessment

The learning outcomes of this qualification are described in four areas:

  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Cognitive skills
  • Practical and professional skills
  • Key skills
Read more detailed information about the learning outcomes.

Credit transfer

You cannot count credit for study you have already completed elsewhere towards this qualification.

On completion

On successful completion of the required modules you will be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Development Management entitling you to use the letters PG Cert (G Dev Mgmt) (Open) after your name.

You can progress from this Postgraduate Certificate in Global Development Management to our Postgraduate Diploma in Global Development (E86) or our MSc in Global Development (F86).

Regulations

As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the qualification-specific regulations below and the academic regulations that are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website. 

We regularly review our curriculum; therefore, the qualification described on this page – including its availability, its structure, and available modules – may change over time. If we make changes to this qualification, we’ll update this page as soon as possible. Once you’ve registered or are studying this qualification, where practicable, we’ll inform you in good time of any upcoming changes. If you’d like to know more about the circumstances in which the University might make changes to the curriculum, see our Academic Regulations or contact us. This description was last updated on 14 March 2023.

It is recommended that you hold a UK bachelor’s degree (or equivalent), or have had experience of working, in a paid or voluntary capacity, in a development agency (international or local) prior to embarking on this qualification. However, these requirements are not compulsory and you will not be required to provide any supporting documentary evidence.
 

Career relevance

Managers working in development contexts need the ability to appreciate the diversity and complexity of these contexts and the capacity to bring about good change. They also need the capacity to understand their own role and the roles of others in bringing about change that works. The module in this certificate provides an historical, interdisciplinary and international framework for analysing the contexts in which development interventions take place and a set of skills for planning, implementing and evaluating those interventions. They equip practitioners to make more effective contributions to the policy and practice of their organisations.

Careers and Employability Services have more information on how OU study can improve your employability.

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