Global Development Studies
ufv.ca/gdsGlobal Development Studies (GDS) is a broadly interdisciplinary program designed to equip students with the critical academic knowledge, skills and experience required to function effectively as development professionals in Canada or abroad or to continue on to graduate or other professional studies.
The BA in GDS has the same entrance requirements as the Bachelor of Arts degree at UFV. Please see the Bachelor of Arts degree entrance requirements.
Applications are accepted for entrance to the Fall, Winter, and Summer semesters. For application deadlines, see specific intake application process.
Applicants who meet the entrance requirements will be admitted in order of their application date. This date is set when an application, all required documentation, and the application fee have been submitted.
See the Fees and Other Costs section of the calendar. Additional fees for course field trips and Internship courses will apply to all students enrolled in Global Development Studies courses.
Four years of full time study requiring a minimum of 120 credits, to include a minimum of 45 upper-level (300- or 400-level) credits.
UFV has four campuses (Abbotsford, Chilliwack (Chilliwack North and the Canada Education Park), and Mission) and three regional centres (Hope, Agassiz, and Chandigarh, India). The majority of the courses in the program will be offered on the Abbotsford campus. All students are required to complete an off-campus internship, which may be in Canada or, preferably, overseas.
Course | Title | Credits |
GDS 100/GEOG 109 | A World of Development | 3 |
GDS 220/ANTH 220 | Anthropology of Globalization and Development | 3 |
GDS 250/SOC 250 | Sociology of Development — The Global South | 3 |
ECON 100 | Principles of Microeconomics | 3 |
ECON 101 | Principles of Macroeconomics | 3 |
One of: | 3 | |
POSC 230 | Comparative Politics | |
or POSC 260 | International Relations and Global Politics | |
One of: | 3 | |
CMNS 125 | Communicating Professionally to Academic and Workplace Audiences | |
or ENGL 105 | Reading and Writing for Prose | |
One of: | 3-4 | |
STAT 104 | Introductory Statistics | |
or STAT 106 | Statistics I | |
or PSYC 110 | Applied Statistical Analysis in Psychology | |
One of: | 3 | |
BUS 100 | Introduction to Business | |
or BUS 204 | Introduction to Non-Profit Management | |
One of: | 3 | |
CMNS 180 | Intercultural Communications | |
or CMNS 212/ MACS 212 | Introduction to Media and Public Relations | |
or CMNS 251 | Professional Report Writing (see Note 2) | |
One of: | 3-4 | |
SOC 255/ANTH 255/MACS 255 | Introduction to Social Research | |
or GEOG 252 | Explanation in Geography: Quantitative Methods | |
or CRIM 220 | Research Methods in Criminology | |
Required: | Four courses of one Modern Language (see Note 1) | 12 |
Required: | BA lab science requirement (see Note 4) | 4 |
Required: | BA reasoning requirement (see Note 2) | 3-9 |
Note 1: All 12 credits must be in one language. The language requirement may be waived for students who are able to demonstrate that they already possess at least intermediate competence in a language other than English; less than intermediate competence may yield a partial exemption.
Course | Title | Credits |
GDS 340/GEOG 340 | Geographies of Poverty and Development | 4 |
SOC 363/GDS 363/ ANTH 363/LAS 363 |
Processes of Development | 4 |
ECON 398 | Development Economics | 3 |
SOWK 380 | Community Development | 3 |
One of: | 6 | |
GEOG 396/GDS 310/SOC 396 | Canada Internship | |
or GEOG 398/GDS 311/SOC 398 | International Internship | |
One of: | 3-4 | |
CMNS 360 (see Note 2) | Advocacy Writing | |
or CMNS 465 (formerly CMNS 365) | Grant and Proposal Writing | |
or CMNS 445 | Facilitation Skills for Professionals | |
One of: | 4 | |
CRIM 320 | Quantitative Research Techniques | |
or SOC 355/ANTH 355/MACS 355 | Quantitative Research Methods | |
or SOC 356/ANTH 356/MACS 356 | Qualitative Research Methods | |
GDS 400 (see Note 3) | Global Development Seminar | 4 |
Note 2: The reasoning requirement can be met by completing PHIL 100 or ARTS 100 or by completing CMNS 251 or CMNS 360 within the required GDS courses.
Note 3: Students must complete GDS 310/GEOG 396/SOC 396 or GDS 311/GEOG 398/SOC 398 before they can enroll in GDS 400.
Note 4: Please see the lab science requirements on the Bachelor of Arts calendar page for more information on courses that meet this requirement.
Students may opt to use their electives to add a minor or extended minor in another discipline.
Program regulations, which include continuance and probation, course repetition, re-admission, graduation requirements, and maximum length of time to complete program are the same as the corresponding program regulations for the Bachelor of Arts degree. Please see the Bachelor of Arts degree program regulations.
The residency requirement for this program is 25%: 30 of the 120 credits in the degree must be completed at UFV. 15 of these credits must be at the upper level. Transfer credits and credits earned through prior learning assessment, including course challenge, do not meet this requirement. Please see UFV's Credentials policy (64).
For complete details on courses see the course descriptions section.