Course Description
Delivering global food security is one of the critical challenges of the 21st century. Each nation needs to balance local food production with imports and consider environmental and economic impact. This master's course considers the critical factors influencing global food security including the contributions of climate change, biodiversity, water, soil, land use, labour, diet and urbanisation.
Skills from this degree
You will gain:
- An understanding of current food production and distribution practices with an appreciation of how they can fail and ensuing health and policy issues
- An ability to critically evaluate how constraints on crop production can change due to biotic and societal pressures
- An ability to select and apply appropriate tools or techniques to tackle a food security question or problem
- Transferable skills including team working, communicating with peers and sector specialists, organising, planning and oral presentation
- Research skills including scientific report writing, conducting surveys, problem solving, data analysis and project work
Entry Requirements
2:2 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in a related subject.
Fees
For fees and funding information please see our website
Programme Funding
We offer a variety of postgraduate funding options for study at the University of Warwick, from postgraduate loans, university scholarships, fee awards, to academic department bursaries.
Student Destinations
Graduates from the School of Life Sciences taught Masters courses have gone on to work for employers including:
- Pfizer
- Severn Trent Water
- Eurofins Agroscience Services
- Novartis
- Philips Healthcare
- Rothamstead Research
- NGO Client Earth
- Public Health England
They have pursued roles such as: research associate, science editor, regulatory affairs officer, marketing manager, business and financial project management professionals, environmental health professionals, agronomist, and climate change consultant.
Our department has a dedicated professionally qualified Senior Careers Consultant offering impartial advice and guidance together with workshops and events throughout the year. Previous examples of workshops and events include:
- Careers in Life Sciences Networking Event
- Careers in Science
- Warwick careers fairs throughout the year
- Mock Interviews for Life Sciences students
- Interested in Careers in Scientific Publishing
Module Details
Core modules
- Soil, Sustainability and the Environment
- Advances in Crop Protection
- Project/Work Placement/Dissertation
- Environmental Accounting
- Climate Change
- Organic and Low Input Systems
- Challenges of Global Food Security
- Biosciences, Politics and Social Acceptability
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Biodiversity, Conservation and Ecosystem Services
- Biological Invasions in Changing Environments
- Microbiomics and Metagenomics
- Marketing Management
- Business Strategy
- Climate Change and Development (Law)
- Thinking Water (IATL)
- Habitability in the Universe (IATL)
- Public Engagement (IATL)