Demographic Training Programme

Contains reports, correspondence, papers, and photographs relating to the Demographic Training Programme at the London School of Economics.

See also SA/PIC/H/1 and SA/PIC/H/9 for publications associated with the DTP.

In 1963 David Glass applied to the Ford Foundation for a grant to fund a postgraduate demographic training programme (DTP) at the London School of Economics with special reference to students from developing countries. The grant was approved and the Foundation gave $240,000 in 1965 which was spread over 5 years. The course was in collaboration with the Population Investigation Committee drawing on the findings of PIC research, and taught by lecturers of LSE and those specially appointed by the PIC and approved by LSE. The DTP was subsequently financed by grants from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations and by the Population Council Inc (USA), which were administered by the PIC. Between 1965-1978 more than 200 students completed the programme.

In 1980 the grants from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations ceased. As a result LSE took over full and complete responsibility for the programme. PIC involvement effectively ceased from this point, although some staff of the Committee continued to divide their time between the Population Studies department of LSE and the PIC.

To celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the DTP a symposium was held called 'Demographic Training in the 1990s' in April 1990 (see SA/PIC/H/9 for the associated publication). The Symposium was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Ford Foundation, LSE, Overseas Development Administration, PIC, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Out of 127 participants in the Symposium, 97 were former or current students in demography at LSE and 64 participants had travelled from overseas to attend.