Nutrition and Food Systems Ghent University

Overview

While large populations face hunger and undernutrition, 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.

Key Facts

After completing this MSc Nutrition and Food Systems programme from  Ghent University , you will:

• Have a strong academic background in human nutrition. The programme contains all necessary courses 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 capable of identifying nutritional problems, their underlying causes and develop, manage, and evaluate relevant interventions, 

• Be able to critically evaluate nutrition research findings and be competent to develop evidence-based recommendations, and 

• Be able to collaborate, communicate and creatively apply these competencies across the disciplines for sustainable food systems change

You can specialise even more during the second year. The third semester has no mandatory coursework and provides an internship opportunity to gain professional experiences. 

You can choose from a broad range of elective MSc courses at UGent or at another university, if these meet the programme learning objectives. The final semester contains the Master’s dissertation and alongside courses that prepare students for employment. 

Accreditation

The MSc in Nutrition and Food Systems has, as the only programme of its kind on the European mainland, been accredited by the Association for Nutrition (accreditation 350, granted 09.02.2026, due for reaccreditation 09.02.2031). This means that students who graduate are eligible to apply for direct entry to the UK Voluntary Register of Nutritionists at Registered Associate Nutritionist level.The accreditation assures potential employers that graduates of the master programme have covered set competencies to work as a nutrition professional.