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Program Details

Graduate Program: Development Practice (MDP)

General Information

Request Information
Program/Degree
Development Practice (MDP)  
Program Description

The Master's in Development Practice (MDP) program brings together talented students and faculty who have dedicated themselves to reducing the impacts of global poverty and defining the pathways to enhance well-being for the under-resourced and socially excluded. The UA MDP provides a comprehensive foundation and practical experience to produce professional and well-trained graduates who understand the complexities of poverty.

Consistent with the philosophy of the MDP network, the Arizona curriculum consists of four cornerstone competency areas:

  • Public health
  • Management
  • Social sciences
  • Natural sciences

For further questions about admissions, please contact MDPAdmissions@email.arizona.edu.

 
Department/Academic Unit(s)

School of Anthropology

History - In the Beginning

(Excerpted, condensed, and adapted from Raymond H. Thompson, "Anthropology at the University of Arizona, 1893-2005," Journal of the Southwest, Autumn 2005, 47(3): 327-347)

Anthropology at the University of Arizona began in 1915 with the appointment of Byron Cummings as Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Arizona State Museum. He came to Arizona from his position as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Utah. He had received his B.A. from Rutgers University in 1889 and his M.A. there in 1892. Cummings served Utah as Professor of Greek and Latin, Head of the Department of Archaeology, and for many years as Dean of Men and briefly as Dean of the College of Medicine. He played an important role in the life of the University of Utah, even organizing its first football team the first year he was there. The football stadium at Utah is named Cummings Field in his honor.

The 54-year-old Cummings left Utah after 22 years of distinguished service at the oldest university in the Far West to throw in with one of the newest in the West. In 1915, the University of Arizona community consisted of 70 faculty members and 463 students, and there were 24,045 books in the University Library. Arizona had become a state only three years before and the population of Tucson, still the largest city in Arizona, was about 15,000. When Cummings arrived on campus, University President von KleinSmid took him to an overflowing storage area, opened the door, and said something like, "Here's the museum, go to it!"

Cummings was vigorous in responding and quickly made the University of Arizona a center for archaeology. In 1928, three of his students, Clara Lee Fraps (Tanner), Florence M. Hawley (Ellis), and Emil W. Haury, received the first M.A. degrees in archaeology awarded by the University. They all stayed at Arizona as Instructors in Archaeology with academic-year salaries of $1500. Florence eventually entered graduate study at the University of Chicago where she earned her doctorate in 1934, using her excavations at Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon for her dissertation. She obtained a position at the University of New Mexico, where she spent 37 years as an inspiring and beloved teacher and continued an active professional life until her death in 1991 at age 84.

Emil stayed at the University for one year to study dendrochronology with A. E. Douglass and then went to Globe to work with Harold S. Gladwin at the Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation. He earned a doctorate under Roland B. Dixon at Harvard University in 1934 and returned to the University of Arizona in 1937 to replace Cummings who retired in 1938. Clara Lee remained at the University of Arizona where she inspired and nurtured several generations of students during a full half-century of dedicated service on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology.

School of Geography and Development

Graduate students in the School of Geography, Development, and Environment (SGDE) benefit from the broad range of faculty expertise and strong links to interdisciplinary research centers across campus. Our work spans the discipline, from physical geography (climate science, dendrochronology, remote sensing, spatial science), to human-environment (political ecology, water policy, climate change) to human geography (development, state theory). Our shared commitment to collaboration and community makes for a lively and engaged department.

SGDE offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, two professional master’s degrees, and participates in several graduate certificate programs

 
College

College of Social & Behavioral Sciences

 
Campus where offered

University of Arizona - Main - Tucson

 
Contacts
Admissions Contact
Elizabeth S Cordova
520-621-7486
Graduate Program Coordinator
Elizabeth S Cordova
520-621-7486
Director of Graduate Studies
Katherine Ann Snyder
520-621-1652
Graduate College Degree Counselor
Annie Prisbrey
520-621-0119
 
Tuition and Fees
Please refer to the UA Bursar's Office Tuition and Fees Calculator for up-to-date information about tuition and fees. 
Please refer to the UA Registrar's's Office Special Course Fees for up-to-date information about special course fees. 

Admissions Information

Admissions Requirements

Personal statement
Resume/CV
2 Letters of Recommendation required, 3 preferred
Academic transcript(s)

GRE scores are not required

For further questions about admissions, please contact MDPAdmissions@email.arizona.edu.

 

 
Standardized Tests

Acceptable English Proficiency tests are: 

  • Test of English as a Foreign Language (link is external) (TOEFL) - minimum score of 79 iBT or 550 PBT
  • International English Language Testing System (link is external) (IELTS) - minimum composite score of 7, with no subject area below a 6
  • Pearson PTE Academic (link is external) - minimum score of 60
 
Funding Opportunities

See: https://geography.arizona.edu/sites/geography.arizona.edu/files/data/MDP%20Student%20handbook%202020-2021.pdf

 

 

 
Admissions Deadlines

Domestic Applicants:

  • Priority deadline for fall 2021 admissions is January 15, 2021
  • Applications will be reviewed after that time, with offers of admission made on a rolling basis until August 2021

International Applicants:

  • For fall 2021 admission, all applications must be received before May 15, 2021

For further questions about admissions, please contact MDPAdmissions@email.arizona.edu.

 
International Conditional Admission

International applicants may be considered for conditional admission to this program at the department's discretion.

Other Information
The GRE Institution Code for The University of Arizona is 4832

Completion Requirements

Minimum Credit Units

47 

Core Coursework Requirements

Degree Requirements

Over the course of 22 months students complete 47 credits of development-focused coursework, including a combination of core, elective, and integrative work.

Students begin by taking required core courses and other introductory activities with their cohort the first year.

During the summer between their two years of study, MDP students complete an intensive hands-on Practicum in their field of concentration and at a destination chosen in consultation with MDP faculty.

The Practicum acts as the pivot within the MDP program. Students apply knowledge and skills gained during the first year of study to their Practicum.  Then they return with new insights for the second year to distil the findings from their summer projects, to complete more specialized coursework, and to apply their experiences to the pursuit of new careers in development practice.

 

Overview of Courses

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach to development practice, students must take a combination of required core courses, including the following:

Social Sciences:
DVP 601: Principles of Social Science for Development
DVP 602: The Role of Culture in Sustainable Development
Other electives of your choice (which for many students will be in economics)

Natural Sciences
DVP 620: Introduction to Natural Systems
DVP 621: Natural Resources Management: Applications 
Other electives of your choice

Health Sciences
An elective of your choice
A recommended course is HPS 533: Global Health

Development Management
DVP 630: Essential Management Principles for Development
Other electives of your choice
A recommended course is PA 582: Managing to Collaborate on Environmental and Natural Resource Conflicts

Additionally, students are required to take integrative coursework, which includes the following: 

DVP 600: Foundations of Development/ Boot Camp
DVP 640: Methods in Development Practice
DVP 641: The Global Classroom 
DVP 642A: Cross-cohort professional development seminar
DVP 694A: Summer Field Practicum
DVP 909: MDP Culmination Project

Before enrollment: It is highly recommended that all MDP students have completed at least some coursework in statistics before starting their first semester, and also take an additional statistical analysis course related to their particular area of focus.

For further questions about admissions, please contact MDPAdmissions@email.arizona.edu.

 
Elective Coursework

Along with integrative course work and courses in the Core curriculum, students may take further elective courses in their chosen areas of study.  Students may consult this suggested list of electives or discuss other course options with their advisors. Note that not all courses are offered every semester, and some may have pre-requisities. 

 
Additional Requirements

All coursework counted towards the MDP must be 500-level or above. Students may elect to take certain courses below the 500-level for their own interest or to build basic skills.

 
Student Handbook

Please refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for students who are pursuing this program of study.

 

Program StatisticsInformation about these numbers

Program-level Information
Application Acceptance Rate 88.89%
Med. Time-to-degree (years) 2.00
 
Department-level Information
Enrollment Percent Male 36.84%
Enrollment Percent Female 63.16%
Enrollment Percent International 0%
Enrollment Percent URM 36.84%

Back to statistics
  • All application, admit, and enrollment data are from Fall 2020.
  • Median Time to Degree calculates how long graduates in the last 5 years (2015-2019) took to complete their degrees, counting back to the first semester entering their program.
  • Underrepresented Minorities (URM) includes domestic students of ethnic groups traditionally underrepresented in higher education: African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders.

Persistent link: https://grad.arizona.edu/catalog/programinfo/DPMDP
Last revised 15 Sep 2020
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