Course details
Bringing depth and real-life insight into your teaching, our staff are involved in leading research contributing to societal change today. This includes projects to improve nutritional health and reduce malnutrition in older people and work to transform nutritional care for people with dementia in care homes.
Contact hours and assessment
You will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, and you will also undertake group work and written exams. The assessment methods and contact hours for each unit can be found in the programme specification for your course.
Foundation Year
Core units
Academic Study Skills: You will gain the fundamental academic and research skills required for degree level study. The unit will introduce you to a broad grounding in literature searching, literature review, data collection, methodological approach, data analysis and interpretation and ethical practice. It will also support you to begin to develop a critical and analytical approach to your work and identify areas for personal development.
Applied Sciences: You'll gain a basic understanding of some fundamental aspects of science underpinning more specific disciplines, and an appreciation of how various scientific disciplines impact human life. You'll understand the differences between pure and applied science, as well as the roles of different ways applied science can be funded, and implications of these funding mechanisms.
Introduction to Biology: Biology is the study of life and hence knowledge of plant and animal cell biology is fundamental to understanding wider concepts in biology. This unit also introduces key themes in human, environmental and ecological sciences to provide a sound underpinning in knowledge for future studies.
Introduction to Psychology: This unit is designed to prepare you for advanced coursework in psychology. You will complete the unit with a good understanding of the various areas of psychology and how they seek to explain behaviour.
Mathematics in Science: You will build your confidence in mathematics, in order to perform calculations on a range of scientific data from biology, chemistry and psychology and to be able to represent the findings in an appropriate format, including graphs. In order to carry this out, it is essential to be able to convert the data between systems of units and to understand how to present very large and very small numbers in standard form. Basic statistical analysis of tabulated data will be carried out to introduce the concept of confidence limits and familiarisation of statistical testing.
Foundation Year Project: You will carry out a research task on scientific topics chosen by the unit leader which you will be able to conduct a scientific investigation on. You will devise your own investigation and produce a literature review as a final scientific report.
Year 1
Core units
Beginning Research: You will be introduced to the concepts, principals and skills of social and scientific research enquiry and to the role of research more widely in a variety of rehabilitation, nutrition, sport and exercise related contexts.
Principles of Food & Nutrition: This unit examines the basic concepts of nutrition and food, including an understanding of the nutritional requirements of the population throughout life.
Human Anatomy & Physiology: Giving you an overview of the structure and function of the human body, you will be introduced to the principal concepts underlying pathophysiological processes that disturb health. Key biological and physiological practical techniques relevant to measuring human health and disease are covered, together with the skills you will need for the analysis and presentation of the resulting data.
Foundation Psychology in Understanding Human Behaviour: You'll gain an awareness and understanding of a number of key social influences on health (income and poverty, social class, discrimination) that may impact on individual and/or group behavioural change.
Professional Values in the Food Chain: This unit highlights the dependence of adequate nutritional status on the food chain, introducing the students to current topics and challenges of global complexities of food supply. The role of the professional nutritionist is discussed within this setting and the wider context of nutritional practice.
Chemistry: You will be provided with an understanding of some aspects and processes within fundamental chemistry and analytical chemistry and develop your laboratory skills. The unit will predominately be delivered through lectures and practical laboratory sessions. The laboratory sessions will enable reinforcement of the theoretical concepts by dealing with experimentally generated data and will allow for one-to-one and small group discussions.
Year 2
Core units
Nutrition in Health & Disease: You’ll gain an understanding of the link between nutrition, health and disease, as well as an ability to apply knowledge and skills of how nutrition can maintain health and prevent ill health in individuals and groups.
Food Processing & Product Development: In this unit you'll learn to develop an innovative food product or modify an existing food product by employing a different a different method of presentation, utilisation or food preservation technique.
Promoting Health & Wellbeing: This unit builds upon learning acquired in the Foundation Psychology unit in first year.
Food Safety & Microbiology: In this hands-on unit you’ll develop practical microbiology skills, such as the aseptic technique, that many quality control employers expect you to have experience of.
Biochemistry: Building on learning from year one, in this unit you will gain an appreciation of systems biology through the introduction of metabolism interconnectivity, and an overview of macromolecules and their metabolism. Topics will include the structure and function of DNA and enzyme structure and kinetics.
Conducting Research: Prepare for independent research and develop your knowledge and critical understanding of social and scientific research applied to a range of nutrition, rehabilitation and sport and exercise science related contexts. You’ll learn how to critically evaluate research problems, and apply coherent ethical research designs and appropriate analysis.
Optional Placement Year
As well as the 20-day (minimum) placement in your third/fourth year, you also have the option of taking a minimum 30-week placement at the end of your second year of study. Whether you choose the three- or four-year option, you will complete the following units in your final year.
Final Year
Core units
Research Project: This enables you to develop and apply skills in research design and in the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of data, and to evaluate your findings in the context of published literature.
Nutritional Requirements Throughout Life: The aim of this unit is to develop a detailed understanding of the nutritional requirements of the population, throughout the stages life, and the provision of appropriate dietary recommendations.
Advances in Applied Nutrition: This unit will provide you with an insight into the nutritional issues encountered within a community setting and will get an understanding of the application of evidence based nutrition in the formulation of dietary guidelines.
Psychological & Social Aspects of Health and Wellbeing: You'll develop the knowledge and skills required to facilitate lifestyle changes and to consider innovative practical recommendations to exercise/nutritional intervention designed at improving and maintaining health and quality of life.
Placement: A 20-day placement with an agency of your choice.
