MSc Food, Nutrition & Health

The MSc Food, Nutrition and Health is aimed at graduates from various disciplines and the programme is suitable for both science and non-science graduates. Students will be educated on the fundamentals of food science and nutrition after which the curriculum enables students to choose topics for more detailed focus.

This programme is delivered and assessed entirely online. The minimum registration to the MSc is two years; however, students have four years in which to complete the programme, thereby affording flexibility. The flexible and online format of the programme enables the majority of students enrolling to combine studying while in employment.

Hosted by the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, the Food, Nutrition and Health programme brings together academic and research staff from across UCD in health-related aspects of food research, including food science, human and public health nutrition, food production, biosystems engineering, food law, consumer behaviour and food safety.

Students will gain an understanding of the nature of food, how it is produced, how it is affected by processing, why we eat, what happens to food when we eat it, and how food components can interact with human functioning. Upon completion of the MSc, graduates will be able to apply this knowledge to address nutrition-related problems in different groups, cultures, and societies.

Graduates will be educated to a high level in the science of food as it pertains to human nutrition and health.

What Will I Learn?

• Be skilled in proposing and developing solutions to nutrition-related problems as they relate to human health and disease and communicate these to stakeholders, at a professional and appropriate level, utilizing information technology and a range of approaches
• Demonstrate a critical awareness of principles relating to scientific integrity and ethical issues in Food, Nutrition and Health
• Demonstrate competence to acquire, organise, analyse, integrate and critically review information from a wide range of sources relating to issues in Food, Nutrition and Health and construct and defend reasoned conclusions
• Demonstrate effective time management and organization skills
• Have a working knowledge of the structures and theoretical tools that enable efficient teamwork, to generate innovative ideas and know-how to approach their subsequent selection for further development
• Integrate and apply knowledge of key principles underlying Food, Nutrition and Health
• Think independently, show initiative, evaluate and select appropriate and reasoned approaches to solve problems
• Use the principles of scientific inquiry, to research a particular Food, Nutrition and Health issue that merits a detailed research investigation.