Master of Human Nutrition
2021 Deakin University Handbook
| Year | 2021 course information |
|---|---|
| Award granted | Master of Human Nutrition |
| Course Map | These course maps are for new students commencing from Trimester 1 2021: These course maps are for new students commencing from Trimester 2 2021: Course maps for commencement in previous years are available on the Course Maps webpage or please contact a Student Adviser in Student Central. |
| Campus | This course is only offered Online |
| Cloud Campus | Yes |
| Duration | Depending on your professional experience and previous qualifications, the Master of Human Nutrition is typically 1 or 1.5 years duration.
Deakin courses can also be studied part time over a longer period. Depending on which Project Option you choose, it may take longer to complete your course. |
| Deakin course code | H714 |
| Approval status | This course is approved by the University under the Higher Education Standards Framework. |
| Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) recognition | The award conferred upon completion is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework at Level 9. |
Course sub-headings
- Course overview
- Indicative student workload
- Professional recognition
- Career opportunities
- Participation requirements
- Mandatory student checks
- Pathways
- Fees and charges
- Course Learning Outcomes
- Course rules
- Course structure
- Work experience
- Other learning experiences
- Research and research-related study
Course overview
Study the Master of Human Nutrition to gain an expert understanding of the relationship between nutrition and health. Then, develop skills to translate this evidence-based knowledge into advice, policy and research that improves the health and wellbeing of whole populations.
Want the skills and platform to change lives through food and nutrition?
A history of teaching and research excellence, world-class facilities, pioneering academics and a long list of industry partners make Deakin’s Master of Human Nutrition one of the leading human nutrition courses in Australia. The course attracts high-achieving students from a broad range of sectors. It caters for those looking to turn their lifelong passion for nutrition into sustained career growth, as well as professionals from other areas of health who want to enhance the quality of their care with expertise in human nutrition.
To truly understand the connection between nutrition and health, you’ll draw on studies from a variety of related disciplines, such as food science, biochemistry, physiology, epidemiology, psychology, public health and politics. Combining this knowledge allows you to examine nutrition from different angles, which is particularly beneficial when providing advice to audiences from diverse backgrounds. Better still, everything you learn is evidence-based, giving you the confidence to combat the dissemination of nutrition misinformation.
A highlight of the course is having the freedom to choose up to five elective units. This allows you to create a degree built for you and your unique career goals. Some of your elective unit options include:
- Sports Nutrition
- Obesity Prevention
- Food Policy and Public Health
- International Nutrition
- Diet and Disease
If you are looking to pursue a specific nutrition career pathway, you might like to visit the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences' careers website to ensure the elective units you choose meet your career development needs. The course can also be used as a pathway into a PhD program.
While the course is conveniently offered on our premium online learning platform, there are many opportunities to engage in practical learning. During the course you can:
- go on an international study tour to gain a global perspective of food and nutrition
- leverage the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences’ extensive list of industry partners to secure work and placement opportunities
- develop your practical research skills with a nutrition research project.
There is growing public interest in the relationship between diet and health, and as a result there are increasing demands from the public for reliable, evidence-based and trustworthy information. In response, the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA) has developed a ‘Register of Nutritionists’ to establish a list of appropriately qualified nutrition professionals.
As a graduate of this course, you may be eligible for registration as an ‘Associate Nutritionist’. Following three years of relevant work experience, Associate Nutritionists are able to apply for ‘Registered Nutritionist’ status. Registration with NSA does not authorise registrants to obtain provider numbers with Medicare or Private Health Insurers. Please refer to the NSA website for further information or queries about registration.
Indicative student workload
As a student in a Cloud (online) course in the Faculty of Health you will be expected to spend 11-13 hours every week studying, interacting via CloudDeakin and completing assessment tasks for each unit in your course.
Professional recognition
Growing public interest in the relationship between diet and health is evident and, as a result, there are increasing demands from the public for reliable and trustworthy information. In response, the Nutrition Society of Australia (NSA) has developed a ‘Register of Nutritionists’ to establish a list of appropriately qualified nutrition professionals.
As a graduate of this course, you may be eligible for registration as an ‘Associate Nutritionist’. Following three years of relevant work experience, Associate Nutritionists are able to apply for ‘Registered Nutritionist’ status. Registration with NSA does not authorise registrants to obtain provider numbers with Medicare or Private Health Insurers. Please refer to the Nutrition Society of Australia website for further information or queries about registration.
You can find additional careers information about this course here
Career opportunities
As the prevalence of global health issues like obesity, malnutrition and mental illness grow, so too has the public’s interest in the relationship between nutrition and health. As a result, there are increasing demands for health professionals who can provide reliable, evidence-based nutrition advice. So much so that jobs in nutrition are expected to grow 17.6% by 2023*.
As a graduate of this course, you’ll have the practical skills, knowledge and real-world experience to take advantage of this demand. You can confidently enter the role of a nutritionist, nutrition promotion officer or nutrition consultant, and explore roles across a variety of sectors including:
- the food industry
- state and federal health departments
- NGOs with a focus on nutrition
- news and media
- education
- private business.
You will be trained to provide dietary advice in community settings, and you’ll be equally as comfortable working on large-scale nutrition campaigns that impact the health and wellbeing of whole populations.
Learn more about careers in nutrition
*Australian Jobs 2019, Department of Jobs and Small Business
Participation requirements
Students are required to complete core units in Trimester 3 of the course.
Elective units may be selected that include compulsory placements, work-based training, community-based learning or collaborative research training arrangements.
Reasonable adjustments to participation and other course requirements will be made for students with a disability. Click here for more information.
Mandatory student checks
Applicable only to students undertaking practicum units, who will therefore require a working with children check. Not mandatory for all students.
Pathways
Students who wish to undertake a PhD in the future are recommended to complete units HSN715, HSN719, HSN750 and HSN751.
Alternative exits
Graduate Certificate of Human Nutrition (H511)
Graduate Diploma of Human Nutrition (H616)
Fees and charges
Fees and charges vary depending on your course, the type of fee place you hold, your commencement year and your study load. To find out about the fees and charges that apply to you, visit the Current students fees website or our handy Fee estimator to help estimate your tuition fees.
Course Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Learning Outcomes | Course Learning Outcomes |
| Discipline Specific knowledge and capabilities | Apply advanced and integrated knowledge of nutrition and health to nutrition related health problems. |
| Communication | Select and use appropriate modes of communication to obtain and share evidence based nutrition knowledge. |
| Digital Literacy | Select and use appropriate technologies to analyse and synthesise complex nutrition information and problems, and to interpret and share knowledge, skills and ideas. |
| Critical thinking | Critically analyse, reflect on and synthesise complex information and problems in nutrition, to come to well-reasoned conclusions. |
| Problem Solving | Apply best practice and evidence to identify problems and generate and evaluate practical solutions to complex nutrition issues. |
| Self-management | Employ high level personal responsibility, accountability and autonomy to demonstrate expert judgement, adaptability to new situations, effective work practices, and responsibility as a nutritionist. |
| Teamwork | Establish, contribute and maintain a key role in relationships with a range of stakeholders to achieve successful outcomes to advance nutrition sciences. |
| Global Citizenship | Engage in professional and ethical practice that demonstrates a high level of personal autonomy, within diverse contexts in nutrition sciences. |
Course rules
The Master of Human Nutrition is typically 8 or 12 credit points. The exact number of credit points you study depends on how much credit you receive as recognition of prior learning (RPL) – your professional experience and previous qualifications – which can save you time and money.
To complete the Master of Human Nutrition students must attain 12 credit points comprising:
- 6 core units (these are compulsory) worth 1 credit point each
Plus choose one of the following options:
Research Based Project Option A
- HSN753 Research Practice in Human Nutrition and *5 elective units
OR
Research Based Project Option B (Research focus)
- HSN750 Nutrition Research Project Part A (2 credit points) and HSN751 Nutrition Research Project Part B (2 credit points) and *2 elective units
* Up to 2 elective credit points may be chosen from postgraduate units offered by any faculty of the University (subject to unit rules and approval by the Course Director).
All commencing Faculty of Health Undergraduate and Postgraduate course work students are required to complete HAI010 Academic Integrity in their first trimester of study (0 credit point compulsory unit).
Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements. Click here for more information.
Course structure
Core units
This course structure applies to students who commenced the course from 2019 onwards.
Students who completed an undergraduate degree from a non-cognate undergraduate study area (e.g. Arts, Commerce, Business, any non-health/science study areas, etc) must complete either H511 Graduate Certificate of Human Nutrition or H616 Graduate Diploma of Human Nutrition first before enrolling into H714 Master of Human Nutrition.
Students who have completed H511 will receive Recognition of Prior Learning for the 4 credit points already completed in H511 and then complete 8 credit points in the H714 course.
Students who completed H616 will receive Recognition of Prior Learning for the 8 credit points already completed in H616 and then complete 4 credits points in the H714 course.
Students who completed an undergraduate degree from a cognate study area may be granted preclusions for the units they have completed in their undergraduate course.
Preclusions mean that you are not required to undertake the specific units within the Masters course but you will need to choose another HSN7xx electives instead.
For example: H315 Bachelor of Nutrition Sciences student has completed HSN211 Nutritional Physiology, they can be precluded from HSN701 Principles of Nutrition and they will need to choose another HSN7XX unit to replace HSN701.
Students must enrol in the Cloud offerings of all units
Trimester 1
| HAI010 | Academic Integrity (0 credit points) |
| HSN701 | Principles of Nutrition (also available in Trimester 3) |
| HSN749 | Biochemistry and Physiology for Human Nutrition |
Trimester 2
| HSN702 | Lifespan Nutrition |
| HSN715 | Understanding Human Nutrition Research Studies |
| HSN735 | Essentials of Food Science |
Trimester 3
| HSN719 | Assessment Methods for Nutrition and Physical Activity Research |
AND
Research Based Project Option A
Trimester 3
| HSN753 | Research Practice in Human Nutrition |
Students would need to complete an additional 5 elective units to complete the 12 credit points for the H714 Master of Human Nutrition.
OR
Research Based Project Option B
Trimester 1
| HSN750 | Nutrition Research Project Part A (2 credit points core unit) |
Trimester 2
| HSN751 | Nutrition Research Project Part B (2 credit points core unit) |
Students would need to complete an additional 2 elective units to complete the 12 credit points for the H714 Master of Human Nutrition
Elective units
Trimester 1
| HSN703 | Diet and Disease |
| HSN705 | Public Health Nutrition |
| HSN708 | Nutrition Promotion |
| HSN709 | Sports Nutrition |
| HSN713 | Food, Nutrition and Behaviour |
Trimester 2
| HSN706 | Food Policy and Public Health |
| HSN714 | Systems Thinking in Public Health Nutrition |
| HSN734 | Obesity Prevention |
| HSN741 | Postgraduate Nutrition Practicum |
| HSN746 | Nutritional Issues from Early Childhood to Adolescence |
Trimester 3
| HSN738 | International Nutrition |
| HSN743 | Nutrition for Healthy Ageing |
| HSN760 | Unit description is currently unavailable |
Students intending to use H714 Master of Human Nutrition as a PhD entry pathway must complete these units:
| HSN715 | Understanding Human Nutrition Research Studies |
| HSN719 | Assessment Methods for Nutrition and Physical Activity Research |
| HSN750 | Nutrition Research Project Part A |
| HSN751 | Nutrition Research Project Part B |
Work experience
Work Integrated Learning principles are embedded within all units. A Postgraduate Nutrition Practicum unit is also available for students to elect to undertake. Specifically designed Careers modules are available on the Course specific cloud Deakin site.
Other course information
Course duration - additional information
Course duration may be affected by delays in completing course requirements, such as accessing or completing work placements.
Further information
Student Central can help you with course planning, choosing the right units and explaining course rules and requirements.
- Contact Student Central
Other learning experiences
A 1 credit point elective unit “International Perspectives in Nutrition” which features a 2 week study tour is available to all students every second year.
Research and research-related study
Option A includes research specific units - 1cp research related study and 1cp independent research as well as 1cp in nutrition assessment unit.
Option B includes – 1cp research related study, 1cp nutrition assessment unit and 4cp independent research project.