What
The focus of the master programme is set on production processes and technologies used in the broad food industry. Building on the bachelor's programme, certain product categories will be further explored here. The various techniques and methods to assess product quality and safety are extensively discussed. This knowledge is necessary to control the various production processes and to guarantee the desired product quality.
In addition to the traditional raw materials (vegetable and animal raw materials) and technological aspects of food production, new biotechnological applications or applications from the circular processes in the food industry are also discussed. You will also be triggered to work with the social and sustainability challenges of the food industry. You will have various opportunities to further build on your research and communication skills.
For whom
The admission requirements vary. Depending on your prior education, you are either able to enrol directly, or there are additional requirements.
Structure
A complete curriculum consists of 60 ECTS.
In the Master's programme there are four compulsory subjects (17 ECTS). These compulsory subjects have a cross-curricular approach that combines different knowledge domains, which allows you to think like a young professional.
In addition to these compulsory courses, you have the opportunity to compile your curriculum from a nutrition-specific list, according to your own interests, and to deepen your knowledge (at least 16 ECTS). You can also take the opportunity to take on a company internship, in a company of your choice, and gain a real workplace experience in the food industry.
The master's thesis is an important part of this programme (20 ECTS) and is normally spread over a full academic year, although deviations from this rule are possible. Within the master's thesis, you can conduct research within a research group at Ghent University or at another (international) university or conduct application-oriented research in collaboration with the food industry.
The remaining credits can be acquired by choosing from a university-wide list of choices, depending on your own interests.
If you would like to go for an international challenge, we have an offer to various international partner institutions in an exchange context, an international master's thesis or international internship.
Labour Market
The entire food processing chain has evolved significantly in terms of technology and calls for a lot of knowledge and creativity. There is therefore a need for food industry engineers in supply, processing, and trade and distribution in positions within quality assurance, product development, purchasing and sales, but also in research, education and consultancy. Employment opportunities are therefore very diverse and demand is high.
A number of our graduates have become successful independent entrepreneurs. Your product and technological knowledge makes you optimally employable as a food industry master's graduate to help to ensure food quality and safety.
Find out what kind of job you can do as an industrial engineer in testimonials from our graduates.
Quality Assurance
At Ghent University, we strive to educate people who dare to think about the challenges of tomorrow. For that purpose, we provide education that is embedded in six strategic objectives: Think Broadly, Keep Researching, Cultivate Talent, Contribute, Extend Horizons, Opt for Quality.
Ghent University continuously focuses on quality assurance and quality culture. The Ghent University's quality assurance system offers information on each study programme’s unique selling points, and on its strengths and weaknesses with regard to quality assurance.
More information:
Unique Selling Points
- Application-oriented: the Bioscience Engineering Technology: Food Industry programme is an application-oriented training with a comprehensive scientific basis. The primary focus is on producing and inspecting high-quality, premium, and safe food.
- Translator of technology: we train application engineers who are an important link between an idea and its implementation. Our well-equipped labs and technological infrastructure also accommodate collaboration with the industry.
- Multidisciplinarity: our graduates have a broad technological knowledge of process technology and process monitoring, and understand the underlying principles. They have a comprehensive understanding of food safety and quality and the necessary skills to measure and interpret these parameters. This multidisciplinarity means that our graduates are equipped to fill a wide range of positions in the food industry and related sectors.
- Multiperspectivism: using seminars we introduce broader perspectives in our course units. These include socially responsible entrepreneurship, sustainable production, innovative thinking, health aspects of food, and ethical behaviour.
- Student talent development: apart from fostering programme-specific competencies, our course units also focus on communication competencies, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Our students have the chance to take part in an international work placement or study-abroad programme.
Strengths
- Students come to our Master’s programme well-prepared. They have either obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Bioscience Engineering Technology with a Food Industry minor or completed an academic bridging programme. Working closely with the study programme, our well-organised counselling services give students valuable advice when designing their curriculum.
- Motivated and approachable lecturers: our programme features a team of dedicated lecturers from diverse fields. They base their teaching on applied research and collaborations with the food industry. Our team is highly accessible and committed to providing personal contact with their students. The lines of communication between lecturers and their students are short, which ensures a robust flow of information regarding the quality of education, in addition to formal student surveys.
- For and by students: we have a long-standing tradition of active student involvement through representation in various councils and committees. We use the student surveys to improve the quality of our education.
- Positive student surveys: the study programme feedback by students and the Master's dissertation survey reveal that student satisfaction is generally high. Students are satisfied with the content-related structure of the curriculum, the opportunities to apply knowledge, the planning and deadlines, and collaborative learning. Strong points in the Master's dissertation survey are the items on ‘how to process academic literature critically’ and ‘how to apply own research results with nuance’.
- Strong ties with the professional field: we organise our study programme in close consultation with the business world through company visits, company work placements and dissertations. We regularly consult professionals in the field, alumni, and international peers to ensure their participation in the quality assurance of the programme. Through these channels, we can also quickly capture needs from the professional field and incorporate them in the curriculum, if possible.
Challenges
- Investing in an optimal implementation of the curriculum: in consultation with the students we want to avoid curricular overlap and make room for innovative topics. We ensure our lecturers co-ordinate with each other regarding content. An international programme review took place in 2023. We want to use the input we received to update the programme-specific learning outcomes. This should make the profile of our type of engineering graduates more pronounced.
- Improving internationalisation: relying on our international network and a large number of international students at our faculty, we want to give all of our students the chance to gain international experiences through an international project, work placement or a dissertation abroad.International experiences in a one-year programme are a challenge, but our students already have study-abroad opportunities in the Bachelor's programme. Taking our cue from similarly structured study programmes, we are looking into Internationalisation@Home initiatives as well.
- Feedback: more so than before, we invest in feedback on assignments. This implies that lecturers and students consult each other more on the timing/deadline of these assignments and what is expected of the students. As the Master’s dissertation is the main graduation project in our programme, we want to invest more in making the expectations vis-à-vis supervisors, tutors and students more explicit in terms of guidelines and assessment.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (Dutch: NVAO). Accreditation was extended following the positive outcome of the institutional review in 2022. Programme quality was validated by a quality review, i.e. a screening of the Education Monitor by the Education Quality Board. The resulting Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 22/08/2024. In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.