Program Overview

Overview

Our MSc in Public Health Nutrition provides you with the answers to many current nutritional issues. Should we eat less saturated fat to improve heart health? Is folic acid fortification necessary? Can we continue to eat what we do and prevent global warming? On this degree, you’ll develop specialist scientific knowledge and practical skills to meet the nutritional challenges of the 21st Century.

Course Features

• International students can apply
• Studying this degree has brought me the consciousness of what to eat and the need to check food labels before buying, to see the amount of fats, salt and other nutritional values. - Emmanuel Ayeni, MSc Public Health Nutrition

What You'll Study

Course Content

Our content has been carefully designed to give you the key skills and knowledge to work in the field of Public Health Nutrition.

• Discover the rationale behind dietary recommendations, reference nutrient intakes and strategies to improve population health.
• Learn about the metabolism of nutrients in regard to disease prevention.
• Look at the psychological models of behaviour and behaviour change in relation to food choice.
• Explore global health challenges, such as maternal and child nutrition, sustainable food production and food poverty.

Compulsory Modules

• Dissertation 2: Enables you to focus upon a significant piece of investigative enquiry in an area of interest, from conceptualisation through to completion.
• Epidemiology, Evaluation and Effectiveness: Develops your critical understanding of populations and the population measures of health, wellbeing, illness and disease.
• Fundamentals of Public Health Nutrition: Provides you with robust foundations in understanding the complexities of nutrition at both individual and population levels.
• Health and Behaviour Change: Focuses on the determinants of behaviours related to health and the theories used to explain and predict behaviour.
• Nutrition and Sustainability: Provides you with an understanding of the complex issues associated with nutrition, food and sustainability.
• Nutrition, Metabolism and Disease: Takes a detailed look at the link between nutrition and diseases affecting our current world.
• Nutrition Research Methods: Introduces you to the research process including the philosophical fundamentals of both quantitative and qualitative traditions and a range of research methodologies.
• Professional Practice: Develops your skillset as a potential nutritionist of the future.

How You'll Study

The programme incorporates a variety of teaching and learning strategies including lectures, workshops, student-led seminars, practical activities and case studies. This varied approach is designed to meet a range of learning needs, encourage problem-solving skills and foster peer discussion and communication. Teaching will usually be delivered during the daytime.

How You'll Be Assessed

Assessment methods are varied and include a combination of exams, essays, case studies and presentations.

Who Will Be Teaching You

You will be taught by specialists in the fields of nutrition, health, physiology, biochemistry and psychology. The programme team are actively engaged in nutrition-related research and consultancy with organisations such as the British Dietetic Association and British Association for Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation.

Entry Criteria

You should have a degree equivalent to UK first-class or second-class honours (2:2 or above) in a relevant subject such as nutrition, dietetics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy, sport science, health, food science or biology.

English Language Requirements

International students require IELTS 6.5, with a score no lower than 6.0 in each individual component, or an equivalent English language qualification.

Facilities

The Faculty of Health, Social Care and Medicine offers outstanding facilities for the education and training of health and social care professionals.

• A professional food science laboratory and kitchen space enables Nutrition students to undertake a variety of practical work with foods in a purpose-built environment.
• Learning resources for Nutrition students include sphygmomanometers for measuring resting blood pressure to indicate cardio vascular risk, bariatric and geriatric suits to experience physical and mobility restrictions, wrist-based global positioning systems (garmin devices) that measure exercise duration, energy expenditure and heart rate, and actigraphs which estimate exercise intensity and track sleep quality and duration.

Finance

Tuition Fees

• UK Full-Time: £9,250 for the course
• UK Part-Time: £51 per credit for 180 credits
• International: £17,000 for the course

Your Future Career

Our MSc Public Health Nutrition prepares you for nutrition related roles in many public and private sector organisations. These include local authorities, charitable organisations, the NHS, health promotion organisations, the leisure industry and the private sector. Job roles include:

• Nutritionist for food retailer
• Scientific officer
• Policy and communication officer
• Nutrition and health adviser
• Healthy lifestyle specialists

Alternatively, you might choose to progress to PhD study where you could focus on a specialist area of nutrition.