Is Development Studies leaving no one behind? Insights from an alumni study of three Belgian international master’s programs in development studies

This paper examines whether master’s in development studies are adhering to the ‘leaving no one behind’ pledge of the SDGs. A full cycle approach was applied to three international advanced master’s at the University of Antwerp to investigate whether there are difficulties for students from less privileged backgrounds to access international higher education. Biases in learning gains (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and networks) and graduates’ contribution to development were also investigated drawing upon alumni and employer surveys as well as impact stories. Results suggest that bias in access is most prominent in female students from low educational backgrounds. Nevertheless, learning gains were consistently high regardless of gender while contributions to development were documented across all categories of graduates irrespective of gender and educational background. Overall, our findings support the idea that facilitating equal access to international study experiences appears to be a very effective way to leave no one behind.