Food Science & Technology Master's Degree - MSc/PgD/PgC

The MSc Food Science and Technology programme has two specialist pathways – Food Innovation & Development, and Food Safety Management. Both pathways share all core modules. The pathway that you select will determine the 2 specialist modules that you study. You will need to specify the pathway you wish to study when you apply.

Core Modules include:

• Global Food Safety
  The aim of the module is to prepare the students for the demands of the food industry with regard to food safety and to demonstrate an understanding of how food safety is managed globally.
• Global Food Quality Management Systems
  To understand principles of Quality Management Systems, and ​GFSI third party certification schemes and their role and application in the food industry.
• Global Food Product Conformity
  This module explores concepts in global food policy and enables students to develop competence in the field of national and international food frameworks in order to ensure product conformance. Students evaluate and inform policy and legal responses to current and emerging issues in food product conformity with a focus on sustainability.
• Applied Research Methods and Design
  The aim of the module is to enable students to develop their research skills in order to apply principles of evidence-based practice, and design and carry out robust research projects.
• Project and Career Planning
  The aim of this module is to enable students to design and develop an advanced specialist project in their discipline to enhance their own and/or others’ learning, work, or practice, and to evaluate their own knowledge, skills, interests and ambitions to create their own personal career development plan.
• Project
  The aim of this module is to enable students to work independently to investigate an area in their discipline relevant to their own learning, work, or practice, and to present and discuss their findings, demonstrating a systematic understanding and critical awareness of their discipline and area of professional practice.

Pathway Modules (can only choose ONE pathway and study the core modules only):

Food Safety Management

• Crisis Management
  This module aims to prepare students to apply the concepts of food safety risk management and crisis communication to prepare and handle potential food safety incidents and crises that may arise due to food manufacturing.
• Risk Perception, Assessment and Communication
  The aim of the module is to enable the student to evaluate the impact a wide range of factors including psychological and psychosocial influences have on the perception, assessment and communication of risk. The module will include hazard identification, risk assessment, mitigation factors and their general impact on safety, health and wellbeing.

Food Innovation and Development

• Food Product Development
  This module explores how food businesses create and improve customer value through new product development and innovation. Critical appraisal of the key and subsidiary processes relating to the food product development process will be covered, including food safety and quality parameters required before any product can be launched. To apply the knowledge of food science when developing a new product considering shelf life, sustainably, nutrition, packaging.
• Processing Technology
  The module aims to develop the application of advanced processing technology in the food industry. It requires practical applications of technical knowledge and evaluation of industrial processing of food. In particular, the functionality and behaviour of composite food structures will be analysed and evaluated focusing on problem-solving within industry. This module improves students’ competencies to apply the theory into practice. The module aims to take students on a field trip when possible, to allow students to see the application of processing in real life and experience large scale processing.​

A well-balanced mix of theory and practice is delivered via a range of teaching methods across the programme, including:

• Live learning activities on-campus – e.g., lectures, seminars, workshops/practical sessions, facilitated group work, etc.
• Academic support activities – e.g., academic skills sessions, subject-based tutorials, assessment workshops, research supervision. These may be delivered on-campus or online depending on the requirements of the module and programme.
• Asynchronous learning activities that students complete in their own time – e.g., pre-recorded video mini-lectures, flipped learning activities, preparation tasks for seminars, etc.

A typical 20-credit taught module will have approximately 40-45 hours of associated scheduled teaching activities, using a combination of the above approaches. Most of these scheduled learning activities will take place on-campus. Alongside these scheduled activities, you’ll undertake your own independent learning – such as reading and research to prepare for seminars or assessments, unsupervised group work with fellow students, engaging with academic skills support, data collection for individual projects, etc.​

There is a strong emphasis on applying the theoretical frameworks to problem-solving which reflects the applied nature of the programme, especially through practical sessions. The programme is designed to prepare students for a career in the food industry.

We encourage you to meet with academic staff regularly throughout the programme to discuss feedback on assignments and the development of academic skills. You’ll be allocated a Personal Tutor at the beginning of the programme, who you can work with to develop your academic skills and consider how you can integrate your learning experiences with your own professional development needs and aspirations.

Our programme and modules are designed to offer opportunities for formative tasks and feedback to help build confidence and develop your ability to evaluate your own progress. We use authentic assessment tasks which enable you to apply your knowledge and skills to scenarios, activities and settings commonly encountered in professional practice.

The programme includes a range of assessment methods, including:

• Written assignments
• Practical/laboratory reports
• Oral presentations (individual/group)
• Case studies
• Posters
• Professional portfolios
• Research project (dissertation)

To reflect the applied nature of your studies, the programme contains no unseen written examinations.

We carefully plan our assessment schedule to avoid excessive bunching of similar types of assessment, and realistic deadlines. Every assessment includes a detailed briefing and clearly defined marking criteria, which have been developed and tested in partnership with students.

The programme provides the potential for graduates to progress within the food industry, retail, government or education. Our past students have found employment in some of the major UK retailers, local regional and international food manufacturers, food laboratories, various sectors of the Government and consultancy advisory roles.

Our module assessments directly relate to future employment or work-related tasks, or more generally to the advancement of the subject and profession, and your own aspirations. This will enable you to develop and demonstrate the application of your knowledge and skills to real-world professional situations.

Career development planning & work-based learning opportunities

In the Project & Career Planning module, you will engage in reflective self-evaluation of your knowledge, skills, and experiences, benchmarking these against relevant disciplinary standards/competency frameworks. We’ll support you to evaluate your current strengths and prioritise areas for improvement relevant to your own career goals and ambitions.

In the Project module, you can elect to complete an industry placement/work-based learning project, focusing on developing your skills and competencies in a complex professional context. If you select this project you will need to obtain a suitable placement (minimum duration: 200 hours, maximum duration 6 months). We’ll support you to find and obtain an appropriate work-based learning experience using our network of industry contacts. We cannot guarantee a placement opportunity for every student, and it is likely that many placement opportunities will involve some kind of competitive recruitment process.

Or you may prefer to select one of the other types of projects (e.g., empirical research, consultancy, enterprise/innovation, or product/intervention design project) and complete it in a work-based setting, working in partnership with an employer or other organisation. This might be your own organisation or workplace – a common approach taken by part-time students investigating a project aligned to their own professional practice.

A First-Class Honours degree or Upper Second-Class Honours degree in relevant science and/or technology subjects.

Under certain circumstances, applicants who do not possess a first degree, but who can demonstrate relevant industrial/professional experience in a cognate discipline will also be considered.

International applications are required to satisfy the University’s English language requirements for postgraduate courses.

Selection Procedure:

Applicants who are judged to meet the required threshold for entry, will be invited to engage with a pre-offer task that will enable them to further explain their motivations for choosing the programme, their passion for the subject, and their aptitude and commitment for study at master’s level.

International Applicants:

Students whose first language is not English will need to provide evidence of fluency to at least an academic IELTS 6.0 standard with no sub-score lower than 5.5 or equivalent​. For full details about how to apply and English Language qualifications please visit the International pages on the website.

How to Apply:

Applications for this course should be made direct to the University via our self-service facility. For further information please visit our How to Apply pages at www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/howtoapply.

If you are interested in using credit from another institution, or have obtained qualifications and/or experience to study for a course at Cardiff Met, you can find further information on this as well as information on how to apply on the RPL page.

Tuition Fees and Financial Support:

For up to date information on tuition fees and the financial support that may be available. Please refer to www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/fees.

Part-time Fees:

Charges are per Single Module unless specified:

Undergraduate = 10 Credits; Postgraduate = 20 Credits

Generally we find most students will complete 60 credits per year for both Undergraduate and Postgraduate study; to obtain a true costing please clarify this by contacting the Programme Director directly.

For general enquiries please contact the Admissions Team on 029 2041 6044 or email askadmissions@cardiffmet.ac.uk.

For course specific enquiries, please contact the Programme Director, Dr Anita Setarehnejad at asetarehnejad@cardiffmet.ac.uk.​​