Why QMU? Research Entry requirements
Our MSc Gastronomy course is unique
in the UK. It is the only course that
currently offers students the opportunity
to engage in the multidisciplinary study of
food, taking a holistic view and
developing an understanding of the
complex connections between food
culture and communication, systems and
science, production and politics and
more. The broad-reaching and multidisciplinary
nature of the field of gastronomy, and the
wide-reaching and ubiquitous nature of
food to our lives, means that the
research elements can of course include
or be related to many areas of research.
At the time of writing, current students
are researching issues around the
sustainability and marketing of food, the
representation of food in the media,
food’s role in shaping identities and
relationships, and the role of food in
knowledge transfer and art. Staff
members are currently researching the
social influence of TV chefs, the notion of
food sovereignty in Scotland, emerging
trends in the teaching of food, and the
growing recognition of the importance of
the emerging field of gastronomy itself. There are several routes to entry.
Through a diverse range of course tutors
and expert guest speakers, and on a
variety of field trips and site visits,
students gain invaluable insight into the
many different ways that food influences
our lives and shapes the world around
us, and how a better understanding of
food can help to solve many of the
world’s social and environmental
problems.
The course builds on QMU’s history as
an innovative provider of food-related
courses and is continuing to break new
ground in this developing field. After
studying this course, we promise you’ll
never eat the same way again!
The tutors aim to make the course as
experiential and inspirational as possible,
using field trips, site visits, practical
workshops and expert speakers to
explore food from every possible angle.
This is not a cookery course! Building on
the definition of gastronomy as ‘the
study of all things concerning the
nourishment of humankind’, students are
exposed to a wide range of topics and
debates including, physiology and
microbiology, taste and quality,
anthropology and sociology, economics
and politics, agriculture and public
health, linguistics and semiotics, and so
much more. Understanding how all of
these topics and issues are linked and
influence each other is the basis of the
gastronomical approach.
Career prospects
Students will place themselves in the
enviable position of gaining exposure to
a wide range of industry experiences and
contacts, and a broad range of
contemporary food issues, which will
enable them to gain employment and
make interventions and transformations
in a wide variety of areas. Past graduates
from the course have, for example, gone
on to further study and research, started
new food businesses and consultancies,
developed new food products, started
community projects and social
enterprises, moved into campaigning
and policy roles, and have gone on to
teaching jobs at secondary, further and
higher levels. There is no single route into
gastronomy, and there is no single route
out.
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- Applicants may have a first degree in
an associated subject, for example, a
BA (Hons) in Hospitality, Culinary Arts,
or Nutrition.
- An honours degree (or equivalent) in a
different discipline but where the
applicant has a demonstrable passion
for food and drink.
- An applicant may potentially be a
mature student who has spent a
considerable period of time in industry
and wishes to formalise their education.
International: Where your honours
degree has not been studied in English,
you will be required to provide evidence
of English language competence at no
less than IELTS 6.5 with no individual
component score less than 6.0.
Full course information
can be accessed on our
website at www.qmu.ac.
uk/study-here/course-a-
z/?tab=postgraduate