Development Studies

Meet Andrew Parker

Andrew completed an joint honours degree in Economics and English Literature at the University of Glasgow in 2000. He decided to stay at Glasgow to do a postgraduate degree in Development Studies.

What are you doing now?

I'm an Economic Development Consultant (specialising in Private Sector Development and Trade) with Imani Development, an Africa-based consultancy but with an office in Oban, Scotland.

How has your degree been useful?

I went to Glasgow University because it offered the option of very diverse degree combinations for Joint Honours.  I opted for Economics and English Literature, graduating with 2:1 Joint Honours.  It has proven to be a rewarding combination for balancing personal and career interests, though breadth of interest was gained at a cost of focusing on one subject with high cross-over between subjects.  That said, I did try to mix them up a bit – my most satisfying experience was writing an essay for English on Game Theory in Shakespeare’s Roman Plays!  Joint honours also meant I sacrificed studying econometrics, which though not essential could be necessary for some economics jobs.

My postgraduate degree in Development Studies gave an opportunity to continue with taught economics courses and broaden into the development perspective. Through the course I picked up some essential concepts necessary for my current work, in particular by understanding those development measures that sit outside the orthodox economic measures.  

Another useful perspective was in Welfare Economics and Public Policy, which covered some issues of Moral Philosophy, in line with the foundations of economics as a subject.  This has been helpful in seeing what ethical problems should be acknowledged in tackling economic problems, and fed through to my dissertation on population economics, which covered many still-pressing topics now viewed through the lens of climate change issues.

Prior to my current job, I worked with the Mary’s Meals school feeding programme, through which I have visited Romania, Liberia, Malawi, Uganda, and Kenya.  I now live in Malawi, though intend to return to Scotland.  My postgraduate degree has been key to demonstrating knowledge in approaching development roles both in aid and consultancy fields.  I am now also a Director of the Scotland Malawi Partnership which I find very rewarding.

Can you offer any advice for prospective Economics postgraduate students?

Study hard, obviously, and if possible take some non-economics social science courses.  For example, in Development Studies there were options such as ‘Gender and Development’, which offer vital counterpoints to clear-cut economics.  

Then – do an interesting job! Economics offers the prospect of a good salary, but also great opportunities to see new places and contribute to their development and growth.  Also be creative in finding solutions to problems and always be willing to consider what variables are important but not included in normal economic measures.

Outside of class, I would strongly recommend joining the Debating (Dialectic) Society at Glasgow University – it broke any fear I had of public speaking.  My job relied heavily on communicating development and aid issues to the public and I can’t recommend the Debating Society enough for this.  It has a very impressive history of past members (John Smith, Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell) and has won the World Debating Championship many times.

And explore Glasgow, which is a wonderful, wonderful city.