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Postgraduate

Postgraduate Diploma in Development Management - Learning Outcomes

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Educational aims

This postgraduate diploma aims to:

  • enhance knowledge of the changing dynamics of development policy and management
  • expand the conceptual and practical skills for taking an international perspective on management
  • combine study of development management with special areas of organisational management, environment and social policy
  • facilitate critical and creative thinking about multi-organisational and institutional development.

Learning outcomes

The programme leading to this diploma provides opportunities for you to develop and demonstrate knowledge and understanding, qualities, skills and other attributes in the following areas.

Knowledge and understanding

On completion of this diploma, you will have knowledge and understanding of:

  • development management as a process of steering social change involving multiple actors
  • different discourses about development management and institutional development, their history, utility and limitations
  • public action and new approaches to public management
  • the possibilities and limitations of tools for development project design
  • planning and evaluation
  • the possibilities and limitations of methods of investigation aimed at informing development policy and action
  • the importance of learning approaches to developing capacities of development managers, organisations and beneficiaries of interventions
  • the major areas, and critical awareness, of current debate in institutional development and the values and meaning underlying these debates, including in governance, poverty reduction and growth, and humanitarian interventions in complex emergencies
  • the relationship between environmental, technological, social and economic approaches and practices of development management.

Cognitive skills

On completion of this diploma, you will be able to:

  • use and evaluate a range of tools associated with project design and planning and with clarifying and focusing development interventions
  • design investigations involving appropriate use of different methods for information gathering and interpretation
  • analyse and reflect on the assumptions behind interventions, and critically assess the performance of interventions
  • use and reflect on the use of taking a public action frame to think strategically about the fragmentation and integration of development interventions
  • analyse and reflect on the discourses, debates, and frameworks of development management
  • critically examine the importance of inter-organisational relationships in institutional development and the significance of competition, coordination and cooperation in these relationships
  • assess the role and use of negotiation and brokering in the context of institutional development intervention
  • use maps and models to organise and represent thoughts as a means of building shared understanding for action.

Practical and/or professional skills

On completion of this diploma you will be able to:

  • appreciate your own position with respect to the institutional and organisational contexts in which development management takes place, and appreciate the experiences and viewpoints of other development managers
  • apply and differentiate between concepts, frameworks, planning tools and investigative methods in practical and/or professional development management contexts
  • locate yourself in the discourses, frameworks and landscapes of development management policy and practice
  • identify stakeholders in a development management situation
  • appreciate the intra- and inter-organisational dilemmas and difficulties facing development managers attempting public action build interpersonal skills of negotiation and brokering.

Key skills

On completion of this diploma you will be able to:

  • develop the ability to advance your own knowledge, understanding, and performance through independent learning
  • communicate effectively knowledge, ideas, techniques and conclusions about development management
  • support arguments with evidence (including the use of a range of primary and secondary source materials
  • design investigations involving appropriate choice and use of different methods
  • build negotiation and brokering skills that facilitate the management of development by enabling people and organisations to work more effectively together
  • model programmes, projects, organisations and institutions
  • map, as a means of organising thoughts and developing different views and approaches to action.

Teaching, learning and assessment methods

Knowledge and understanding are gained from supported open learning core module texts, associated readings, audio CDs and DVDs. Core module texts are designed to guide you gradually through concepts and practical examples. You will have the opportunity to engage in regular learning activities that allow you to assess your progress and understanding.

Cognitive (or thinking) and key skills are developed throughout the module texts, associated readings and in two published textbooks written for the programme. These skills are further enhanced through critical examination of case studies and examples and through the in-text activities.

Professional/practical skills are reinforced through activities and assessment questions that require personal reflection.

Your tutors are selected for their knowledge of the subject areas and experience in its practical application and they support your learning by phone, letter, fax, email, or email conference when required.

The core modules in the diploma and also many elective modules make extensive use of electronic working in delivery, assessment, tutor–student support and student–student support. Students from the UK and worldwide are therefore able to study this programme whilst remaining in full-time employment.

The above knowledge, understanding and skills are assessed formally via the regular assignments and an examinable component at the end of each module. Your understanding and skills are reinforced by support from tutors in the form of feedback based on your assignment answers. The examinable component is an unseen examination or an end-of-module essay/report.