Sustainable Food Systems MSc
Leeds, United Kingdom
DURATION
12 Months
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline *
EARLIEST START DATE
Request earliest startdate
TUITION FEES
GBP 27,250 **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international applicants: 30 July 2023 – UK applicants: 10 September 2023
** UK: £14,000 – international: £27,250
Scholarships
Explore scholarship opportunities to help fund your studies
Introduction
Food security is providing nutritious, safe and affordable food for all. Being able to do this sustainably is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Food practitioners need to be able to respond to food security and safety concerns, shifting attitudes towards food and farming, changing diets and demographics, as well as balancing global economic and environmental pressures.
This course comes at a time when food and its implications on our health and planet are making the headlines. From the food-waste paradox to food’s devastating environmental impact — the need for sustainable food systems couldn’t be more paramount. That’s why organisations across the world are looking for qualified experts in this area, to help resolve some of the greatest challenges we’re facing in food today.
That’s why our MSc in Sustainable Food Systems uses a holistic system thinking approach to understand, evaluate and deconstruct the complexity of the food system, in order to formulate secure and sustainable solutions that address these grand challenges.
The course benefits from expertise from across a wide range of Schools, giving you extensive knowledge and a varying skill set to be able to tackle real-world issues effectively. You’ll also have access to world-leading research in food and other relevant topics, conducted right here on campus. This means, once you graduate, you’ll be fully equipped to pursue an exciting and rewarding career in this industry.
Learning and teaching
Our groundbreaking research feeds directly into teaching and you’ll have regular contact with staff who are at the forefront of their disciplines. You’ll often interact with academics through lectures, seminars, tutorials and small group work.
Problem-based learning is at the heart of this programme. All key disciplinary or theoretical perspectives are embedded in each module to encourage innovation and interdisciplinary practice. For example, you’ll work in teams to tackle complex sustainability challenges, such as food security, which require you to incorporate diverse resources, such as existing knowledge, data collection, interpersonal skills, reflections and reasoning ability, in order to meet these challenges.
Independent study is also important to this course, as you develop your problem-solving and research skills through the extended research project which culminates the programme. You’ll produce an original piece of research investigating a real-world challenge that food sustainability presents.
You will be assigned a personal tutor, who will maintain contact with you throughout the year and offer pastoral guidance. They will help you to settle into the university and clarify any procedures, as well as help you prepare for employment on graduation.
Our Virtual Learning Environment will help to support your studies: it’s a central place where you can find all the information and resources for the School, your programme and modules.
You can also benefit from support to develop your academic skills, within the curriculum and through online resources, workshops, one-to-one appointments and drop-in sessions.
Active research environment
This Master's degree builds on the success of the University’s interdisciplinary research on the theme of Food. Through strong collaborations with the Global Food and Environment Institute, you will not only be exposed to cutting-edge research but also be given the opportunity to collaborate with industry, policymakers, non-governmental organisations, and the third sector.
You’ll be exposed to the latest thinking and research in a wide range of disciplines underpinning food sustainability, in order to successfully apply your knowledge and skills to real-world challenges.
The programme’s strength lies in its interdisciplinary nature and the integration of concepts, approaches, and perspectives from different disciplines in each module, offering a seamless narrative throughout the course.
Discover our research
Food Safety and Nutrition: A Global Approach to Public Health is a free online course, delivered via Futurelearn, exploring the challenges of ensuring food security faced by researchers, policymakers and individuals worldwide.
Learn how large-scale change, like industrialisation, globalisation, population growth and climate change, affects food safety and understand the consequences for the world’s health and nutrition.
Programme team
The Programme Leader, Dr Effie Papargyropoulou, is an Environment Social Scientist, passionate about sustainability and food, who works within the School of Earth and Environment. She is also a part of the Sustainability Research Institute and has a wealth of experience, both in industry and in academia in Malaysia – meaning that she is able to present a variety of different perspectives throughout her teaching.
This course is innovative and interdisciplinary, bringing together expertise from across the University including the schools of Earth and Environment, Food Science and Nutrition, Psychology, Geography, Biology, the Institute for Transport Studies and Leeds University Business School to make up the wider programme team.
In this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.
Program Outcome
Why study at Leeds:
- Graduate from a University that ranks 39th in the world for Environmental Sciences, QS World University Rankings by Subject 2022.
- Benefit from interdisciplinary learning and specialist practical and theoretical teaching, with expertise from multiple Schools: Earth and Environment, Food Science and Nutrition, Psychology, Geography, Biology, the Institute for Transport Studies and Leeds University Business School.
- Learn the latest innovations in relevant topics within food, sustainability and beyond from the impactful, world-leading research conducted across seven different Schools and collaborations with the Global Food and Environment Institute, which feeds directly into the course.
- Advance your knowledge and skills in key areas like food security, sustainable food production, food supply chains and food consumption.
- Conduct your own individual research project focusing on a genuine real-world research challenge that suits your interests, provided by the academic supervisory team and our non-academic partners.
- Join one of our societies, such as SusSoc, where you can meet like-minded people at events such as socials and sports.
Curriculum
This course will equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to become an effective leader in the transition to a more sustainable, efficient, healthier and fairer food system.
Throughout this master, you’ll have the chance to become familiar with the research methods and analytical techniques used in sustainability research, the capabilities individuals require to lead change in the food system and the tools and skills required in the food industry.
During the field trip, you’ll gain first-hand experience with the challenges of balancing the three domains of sustainability (environment, people, and economy) and the implications of a local, regional or global food system. The cost of the field trip is covered by the course fee.
On completion of this course, you’ll be able to:
- demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of concepts, information and techniques at the forefront of one or several related disciplines investigating food systems sustainability.
- apply systems thinking approaches to critically and creatively evaluate current and future challenges, research and advanced scholarship in food systems.
- diagnose and propose solutions to the real-world challenges that food sustainability presents.
Field trips
In this course, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in a number of field trips to food production and consumption sites, including a week-long field trip to a food-producing region. Through these field trips, you’ll be exposed to the interconnected nature of our local, regional or global food systems and the challenge of reconciling competing local and global, environmental, economic and social priorities.
Other off-campus learning opportunities may be offered through collaboration with commercial partners, such as the University of Leeds Farm. The farm is operated as a commercial business, which also hosts research and innovation projects and can provide a platform for collaborative research and innovation with industry, government and public research organisations.
Course structure
The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time.
Year 1
Compulsory modules
- Introduction to Sustainable Food Systems 30 credits
- Skills for Sustainable Food Systems 30 credits
- Sustainable Food Production 15 credits
- Sustainable Food Consumption 15 credits
- Sustainable Food Supply Chains and Trade 15 credits
- Food Systems Fieldtrip 15 credits
- Food Systems Research Project 60 credits
Admissions
Career Opportunities
The food industry is constantly under the spotlight from government agencies to provide more sustainable systems for the future, meaning the demand for qualified specialists in this field is far-reaching.
This course will equip you with both the necessary knowledge and skills, such as systems thinking, problem-solving, strategy and policy-making, to become an effective change agent who will lead the transition to more sustainable food systems. Through its interdisciplinary nature, it offers a holistic or systems-based perspective of the food system and balances critical thinking with practical solutions, which is key to enhancing employability prospects.
This programme is ideal for those intending to pursue a range of future employment roles in management and decision-making positions, in a wide range of organisations such as, but not limited to agribusiness, food processing, retail, non-governmental organisations, charities, social enterprises, governmental organisations and policy-making bodies e.g. Defra, WRAP, regulatory bodies, food standards organisations, consultancy, international organisations e.g. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Plus, the University of Leeds is in the top five most targeted universities in the UK by graduate recruiters, according to High Fliers’ The Graduate Market in 2022 report.