Master of Science in Nutrition and Food Systems
Food systems changes are required to improve human diets, promote planetary health, and achieve sustainable development. The Nutrition and Food Systems programme focuses on human nutrition and diets from a food system perspective.
What
While large populations face hunger and undernourishment, elsewhere in the world overweight and diet-related chronic diseases have taken on pandemic proportions. In addition, human diets have a significant impact on natural resources and the climate. More than ever, food systems changes are required to improve human diets, promote planetary health, and achieve sustainable development. The Nutrition and Food Systems programme focuses on human nutrition and diets from a food system perspective.
After completing this degree, our students:
- have a solid academic background in human nutrition. The programme contains all the necessary course units for you to work as a nutritionist;
- understand how human diets and nutrition are driven by food systems, from the production, post-harvest handling, transformation, storage, marketing of food up to the behaviour of consumers;
- be able to identify nutritional problems, their underlying causes, and to develop, manage, and evaluate relevant interventions;
- be able to evaluate nutrition research findings critically and be competent to develop evidence-based recommendations;
- be able to collaborate, communicate and apply these competencies creatively across the disciplines for sustainable food systems change. You acquire international and intercultural competencies through interactions with a diverse and international group of students and lecturers.
Our graduates start their professional career with an international network. The Nutrition and Food Systems programme has its roots in the Nutrition and Rural Development programme, which has run as an international MSc programme at Ghent University since 1987. In response to increasing global concerns regarding the sustainability of food systems, we revised the programme and focus it explicitly on food systems now.
For whom
The admission requirements vary. Depending on your prior education, you are either able to enrol directly, or there are additional requirements.
Structure
The two-year curriculum is a gradual build-up of learning opportunities staggered over four terms. The initial fundamental knowledge course units gradually make way for course units that provide generic competencies for life-long learning and employment at the end. The programme allows you to tailor a part of the curriculum to your own needs, talents, and interests.
The first term contains general course units related to nutrition and food systems. It establishes a common ground for all students as many enter the programme with different education backgrounds in disciplines such as food technology and engineering, nutrition and dietetics, biomedical sciences, or medicine. The second term builds on this knowledge with more advanced course units.
Students can specialise even more during the second year. The third term contains no mandatory course units and provides a work placement opportunity to gain professional experiences. Students can choose from a broad range of elective course units at Ghent University or at another university, if these meet the programme learning objectives. The final term contains the Master’s dissertation alongside course units that prepare students for employment.
Labour Market
Our alumni are found at local and national governments, United Nations agencies, (inter)national non-governmental organisations and research institutions across the globe. A considerable number of our students pursues further PhD study. The labour market opportunities are, in particular:
- positions at public institutions and local governments. Examples are technical experts at consumer organisations, city administration, regional health authorities, nutrition advisers at the Ministry of Agriculture, FAO, UNICEF, WHO or NGO’s such as ACF, Rikolto, etc;
- research and education positions at universities or private research institutions, e.g., senior researcher, lecturers, professors;
- PhD programmes on nutrition, bioscience engineering, biomedical sciences, and life sciences;
- employment and consultancy services for NGO’s, European-, UN or international organisations, active in nutrition or nutrition-sensitive programmes and/or sustainable development;
- private sector R&D positions, for example to guide the development of new products or services to suit the needs of consumers and markets.
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
- The time is now. Poor diets, nutrition, food systems and sustainability are high on (inter)national agendas. You will study in Ghent, a city with an urban food policy that won the UN Climate change award for planetary health.
- Strong diploma. The Academic Ranking of World Universities consistently ranks Ghent University among the top-five 5 European universities in offering agriculture and food science programmes.
- You choose. You can tailor a significant part of your curriculum to your needs, talents, and ambitions.
- Multi-disciplinary perspective. This programme combines a strong academic knowledge on both nutrition and food systems. You will have a broad understanding of how different disciplines can be leveraged to improve diets and nutrition.
- Integration of latest research in courses. Lecturers are international leading experts in nutrition, food and food systems and combine research with a passion for education.
Strengths
- We know you. Students have close contact with tenured academic staff and teaching assistants. Students interact with the staff in both formal and informal ways to discuss research, as well as academic and practical matters related to studying in Belgium.
- Education quality. Students and lecturing staff collaborate to ensure quality. A study programme committee meets on a monthly basis to discuss matters related to the quality and organisation of the programme. Student representatives are voting members and count for towards at least 1/3 of the total membership and have voting rights.
- International degree benchmarking. The programme’s educational matters and quality control assurance are reviewed and guided supervised by an international advisory board. This board contains alumni and representatives from NGO’s, and UN agencies as well as academic staff of universities in Europe and in the global south.
- An international network. The programme leverages a large network of alumni and has active contacts with international organisations. Upon graduation, Vvarious students successfully secure an internship work placement position in UN agencies such as FAO upon graduation.
- You are not alone. Our faculty's international training centre guides you throughout your journey, beginning with the application. They also bring you into contact with connect you to our alumni network after graduation.
Weaknesses
- Work placements are recommended but not mandatory. The programme offers short (approximately 20 full working days) work placements as an elective . Most students are not native speakers of Dutch and short English-speaking work placement opportunities in Belgium are limited. These hindrances cause some students to opt out of the work placement and take up other course units instead.
- Exchange with other MSc programmes in Europe. As the programme was established in 2022, the mobility window and linkages with other programmes in Europe is under active development.
- As this is a newly- established programme, it has not yet been accredited, which means that graduates cannot (yet) apply for the title of registered nutritionist directly. We are working on that. In anticipation of accreditation of our programme, students will be encouraged and supported to apply individually to obtain the title of associated or registered nutritionist in the UK.
This study programme is accredited by the Accreditation Organization 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 Quality Assurance Resolution (in Dutch) can be found here.
This information was last updated on 01/02/2023.
In case of questions or suggestions with regard to the publicly available information, please contact the study programme.