Institute of Development Studies

IDS Students head to China

1 June 2009 

Nine students from the Institute of Development Studies are visiting China during June as part of IDS’ new MA course in Globalisation and Development. Their study trip, which runs from 30 May to 13 June, will include meetings with Chinese businesses, international development agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and students from a number of Chinese universities.

The MA in Globalisation and Development, which IDS is running for the first time this year, explores issues around the global economy’s unprecedented shift in economic power from West to East; rapid technological transformation; increasing turbulence; and deep inequalities between and within countries. The students represent seven different countries, including Nigeria, Turkey, Japan and China.

‘As a student from China, I really hope that the other students can have a close understanding about my country. Not only from what they read and hear from professors, but also from their own eyes,’ said Xueqin Chu, one of the students. ‘It is essential for us to link this experience of China's rapid growth into the development industry.’

‘The Globalisation and Development MA students have been looking at the impact of trade and financial market policies on countries, producers and workers and how this is influenced by their integration into the global system,’ said Neil McCulloch, IDS Research Fellow and MA Programme Convenor. ‘The China trip will enable them to learn first hand about how China’s rapid rise has transformed competition in the global economy – both in terms of the new opportunities that are arising and the new challenges faced by countries all over the world.’

Image: Jeremy Horner/ Panos