About Us
The Institute for Development Policy and Management, established in 1958, is the UK’s largest University-based International Development Studies department.
IDPM's objective is to promote social and economic development, particularly within lower-income countries and for disadvantaged groups, by enhancing the capabilities of individuals and organisations through education, training, consultancy, research and policy analysis.
In recent years it has been increasingly recognised that the quality of policy and institutional design represents a key constraint to development.
The Institute offers, within a friendly and supportive atmosphere, the services of a wide range of staff specialising in the practical problems of policy formulation and implementation, organisational design and management, backed up by specialist library and computing facilities and by fifty years of institutional experience.
Quality and excellence in teaching and research
In the Research Assessment Exercise 2008, a periodic government review of the quality of research in UK universities, 65% of IDPM’s research was assessed as ‘world-class’, and in significant areas was viewed as ‘world-leading’. This means that not only is IDPM contributing at a global level to debates about poverty and development, but in some areas is setting the pace.
With the government having previously awarded its highest possible rating for the quality of IDPM’s postgraduate teaching, IDPM has now achieved national recognition as the UK’s leading centre for development research and teaching.
This follows our achievement of ‘full marks’ in the Government’s Quality Assurance Agency’s (QAA) review of IDPM’s postgraduate programmes, providing an external confirmation of the international quality standards being achieved by our postgraduate teaching work.