Developing Leaders and Improving Lives in the World's Developing Countries
Developing countries are facing many critical problems that require increasing attention by their governments and civil society. However development programs often lack enough planners, administrators, evaluators and others well trained on the emerging problems and processes of development.
Persons with training in such areas as demography, nutrition, agriculture, or engineering often find themselves charged with functions of policy planning and program administration for which they are not fully prepared. Similarly, persons with training in economics, city planning, law, or public administration often find themselves working on substantive development problems for which they have limited preparation and technical knowledge.
Many institutions are discovering that successful development professionals require a combination of skills. In addition to knowledge of the substantive areas for which they are responsible, practitioners need the analytical tools by which such knowledge is transformed into action.
Recognizing the limited opportunities for development practitioners to obtain suitable training, the Cornell University Graduate School offers a professional degree program in International Development. The Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD), based in International Programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, oversees this degree program.
The first students enrolled in September 1973. Designed for practitioners, the program consists of 1-2 years of interdisciplinary graduate-level study leading to the degree of Master of Professional Studies in International Development (MPS ID)
International Development graduate students in consultation with their advisors to select appropriate courses from the wide variety of offerings at Cornell. Half the course work is in some combination of the following areas of analysis: development administration and planning, development economics, communication and related analytical tools, the other half is devoted to one of five substantive concentrations: International Nutrition, International Planning, International Population, Science and Technology Policy, or Development Policy in some designated area such as natural resource management or gender in development proposed by the student and accepted by the faculty.
For more information about this field of study, feel free to contact the people below.
Professor Norman Uphoff
Director of Graduate Studies
IP CALS
33A Warren Hall
Phone: (607) 255-1902
Email: ntu1@cornell.edu
Virginia (Ginny) Montopoli
Graduate Field Assistant
IP CALS
Phone: (607) 255-0831
Email: MPS/ID
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