International Development Studies (IDS) seeks to understand and address problems facing developing countries. It is an inherently interdisciplinary field that examines issues through a range of lenses like political science, economics, science, anthropology, sociology, environment, and many others.  

As an IDS student, students can focus on their interests within the following streams:  

• Economic Development and Living Standards: Students will study factors contributing to economic growth, the trade-offs associated with different ways of achieving it, and the distributional issues that arise. This stream explores what ‘development’ means in different contexts.  
• States and Governance: Students will focus on how political institutions shape developmental processes.  
• Culture and Society: They will learn how the social structures, history, and culture of populations affect development processes.