MSc Research Agricultural and Food Economics

Course director: Dr C S Srinivasan

The MSc Research Agricultural and Food Economics is a one year, full-time Masters degree course which prepares students for doctoral studies in agricultural and food economics and marketing.

Aims and objectives

The aim of the course is to prepare students for doctoral studies in agricultural and food economics and marketing. The course aims to provide rigorous training in research methods to prepare students for research careers in academia or in non-academic organisation. The course combines training in the skills of applied economics and marketing – including quantitative and qualitative research techniques – with an opportunity to apply them to a diverse range of contemporary farm, food and rural issues in both developed and developing country contexts. The focus of the degree is on providing a thorough understanding of research methods and skills in the social sciences in general and management studies in particular.

Transferable skills

The course requires a substantial amount of independent reading, research and study and students are expected to take personal responsibility and show initiative in developing their knowledge and understanding of the field of study. In following this course students will also have the opportunity to enhance and develop their skills relating to communication, information handling, problem solving, and the use of information technology. Students will learn to work independently, under time pressures, and will learn to set priorities and manage their time in order to meet strict deadlines. Students will acquire the necessary generic and subject-specific skills to successfully pursue a Higher Degree course.

Course structure

The course starts at the beginning of the Autumn Term and is fully taught for two ten-week terms. The remainder of the course, from June until September, is devoted to preparation of a 10,000 -12,000 word dissertation, for submission in early September. Most of the core modules are taught in the first (Autumn) term, and most optional modules in the second (Spring) term. The MSc is one of three MScs in applied economics that share core modules (the others being Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Development Economics and Food Economics and Marketing), and in other modules (typically taught in small groups) you will often be studying with students from other MSc/MA programmes in the Graduate Institute. This results in an exciting mix of professional backgrounds, cultures and nationalities, enhancing the learning environment and leading to lifetime friendships.

Entry requirements

Entrants to this course are normally required to have an undergraduate honours degree (or equivalent from a University outside the UK) in Economics, Agricultural Economics or another subject with adequate training in economic principles and quantitative methods. Well qualified applicants with quantitative skills from their first degree, but without an economics background, may be allowed entry provided they attend an economics preparatory course delivered by the Department in the September before the start of the MSc course.

Subject streams

Students follow compulsory modules (90 credits) and select a further 30 credits from an extensive list of optional modules.

Compulsory modules:

• Reading Researcher Development Programme
• Essentials of Research Methods
  
• Quantitative Methods
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Consumer and Producer Theory
• Econometrics
  
• Research and Study Skills for Independent Learning

Optional modules include:

• Policy Analysis
• Market and Trade Analysis
  
• Economics of International Food Markets
  
• Marketing Research Methods
• Resource and Environmental Economics
  
• Consumer Behaviour and Food Marketing
  
• Food Security and Development

See the full list of the modules offered to GIIDAE students.

Further details of each of the above modules can be found on the main University module description pages www.reading.ac.uk/module.

(Please note that the programme may be subject to change from the list above)