Course Title: Aid, Adjustment and Development

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Aid, Adjustment and Development

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

HUSO2078

City Campus

Postgraduate

330H Social Science & Planning

Distance / Correspondence or Face-to-Face

Sem 2 2006

HUSO2078

City Campus

Postgraduate

365H Global, Urban and Social Studies

Distance / Correspondence or Face-to-Face

Sem 2 2008

HUSO2078

City Campus

Postgraduate

365H Global, Urban and Social Studies

Face-to-Face or Internet

Sem 2 2010,
Sem 1 2012,
Sem 2 2014

Course Coordinator: Dr. Reina Ichii

Course Coordinator Phone: +(61 3) 9925 0416

Course Coordinator Email: reina.ichii@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 37.4.12C

Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None


Course Description

The course provides an overview of official international financial flows (otherwise known as development assistance or ‘aid’) and the evolution of development policy over the last twenty years, and introduces key debates. Topics examined include trends in aid flows, the motivations of donors in providing aid, the Third World debt, the tying of aid to market-oriented economic reforms through Structural Adjustment Programs, and the social and economic impacts of aid. The course will critically evaluate the role of the World Bank as the world’s principal development agency. Also examined are contemporary debates regarding the role of good governance in development and the future of aid in a global economy.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

At the conclusion of this course it is envisaged that students will have: developed a critical understanding of key debates about official aid and adjustment; developed a critical understanding of the implications of current debates about the role and impacts of official aid; developed a critical understanding of how aid is defined and measured; developed skills in relating theoretical perspectives and debates to practice and policy issues and dilemmas; developed the capacity to recognise the ways in which diverse theoretical perspectives lead to alternative and competing possibilities for analysis and action, and developed skills in the preparation of critical oral and written argument appropriate for studies at postgraduate level.



Overview of Learning Activities

You will be able to engage in a variety of lectures, classroom discussions, discussion baord and interactions with guest speakers.


Overview of Learning Resources

You will be able to use a prescribed text and/or recommended readings.


Overview of Assessment

You will be able to prepare assessment tasks with a total word length or equivalent of 5,000 words, split into two or three different assessment tasks.