MPH Public Health (Nutrition)

Graduate Taught (level 9 nfq, credits 90)

The MPH Nutrition programme in UCD has been developed to offer multi-disciplinary training and development in Public Health Nutrition, emphasising the application of food and nutrition knowledge, policy, and research to the improvement of population health.
  • Knowledge of the factors influencing health status.
  • The epidemiological skills of study design and analysis.
  • A proper understanding of the Public Health function.

Careers & Employability

As UCD has a globally acclaimed reputation in the area of Public Health, you will gain the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in a wide range of careers in the Public Health sector.
Many of our former students hold significant posts in Public Health in various parts of the world. MPH Graduates include, for example, Consultants in Public Health Medicine, University Professors and Ministry of Health Medical Officers.

Curricular information is subject to change


Full Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. Yes

Part Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants currently residing outside of the EEA Region. No

Applicants should hold a primary degree in a nutrition related subject.

The Master of Public Health (Nutrition) is suited to health and nutrition professionals interested in furthering their knowledge of the relationship between diet and disease with additional knowledge in areas ranging from obesity to malnutrition. The Master of Public Health (Nutrition) provides broad-based education and training in the basic disciplines which underlie the practice of Public Health Nutrition including disease epidemiology, nutrition epidemiology, diet and disease, behavioural change, research methods and statistics, health promotion, environmental health, health economics, sociology and health policy. The course provides the academic foundation for the practice of Public Health.  We value and therefore encourage students to be active, motivated autonomous learners. The learning environment is multi-disciplinary in nature. Tutorials, seminars and group work are important features of the teaching approach. Assessment is by continuous assessment and end of semester examinations and a research thesis. Assessment approaches include written assignments, oral presentations (both group and individual), data analysis and written examinations. 

  • Graduates will be able to identify and apply appropriate epidemiological methods for study design.
  • Graduates will be able to identify and apply appropriate statistical analysis to analyse a public health problem.
  • Graduates will be able to identify the occurrence and distribution of health and illness in populations analyse and to interpret health data to assess community needs and resources.
  • Graduates will demonstrate critical appraisal skills.
  • Graduates will demonstrate understanding of health promotion and disease prevention and the importance of advocacy as a public health professional.
  • Graduates will demonstrate understanding of the breadth of the role of public health in the health services.
  • Graduates will have a good understanding of nutrition related health problems including obesity and associated chronic diseases, micro and macro nutritional deficiencies and life stage nutrition.

View All Modules Here

The MPH programmes are divided into four six-week blocks, each of which contain Core and Option modules. This is a 90 credit Masters. Each student must take 70 credits of taught modules and a 20 credit Dissertation. 

MPH Public Health (Nutrition) (X299) Full Time
EU          fee per year - € 10200
nonEU    fee per year - € 22450

MPH Public Health (Nutrition) (X300) Part Time
EU          fee per year - € 4940
nonEU    fee per year - € 14550

***Fees are subject to change
Tuition fee information is available on the UCD Fees website. Please note that UCD offers a number of graduate scholarships for full-time, self-funding international students, holding an offer of a place on a UCD graduate degree programme. For further information please see International Scholarships.

This programme is intended for Graduates of Health Science degree programmes (Medicine, Dentistry, Public Health, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Nursing, or other), Science degree programmes (Biology, Biochemistry, Food Science, Physiology, Pharmacology, or other) or Social Science degree programmes (Psychology, Sociology, Economics, or other) preferably with a 2.1 Award or higher. Awards of 2:2 or less may be considered with additional suitability credentials.  Applicants will be required to provide evidence of the highest level of mathematics achieved in prior education.

  • Applicants to this programme should apply to the general MPH programme. Further information is available online.
  • Applicants whose first language is not English must also demonstrate English language proficiency of IELTS 7.0 (no band less than 6.5 in each element), or equivalent.
  • These are the minimum entry requirements – additional criteria may be requested for some programmes 

Graduate Profile
Claire Ramsay, Ireland,

Senior Community Dietician
In order to increase my chances of obtaining a good job and for quicker job progression, I chose to undertake further education that would be relevant and useful to my profession. UCD was the only institution that allowed me to choose a masters that was interesting, useful and nutrition-specific, which as a qualified dietician, I required. While I learned a huge amount from the content of the course and classes, the class interaction and group work provided me with great insights and practical knowledge, particularly as the class was made up of people from lots of different backgrounds, which provided insights from different countries and different health professions. This gave a great holistic and practical knowledge on health and the health care service. In my professional role I have started up a new dietetic service specialising in adult malnutrition, and I have found that the course has provided me with the tools needed to put together the evidence to prove the value of this initiative. The knowledge in research and statistics which I gained from the course will always remain invaluable to me.

The following entry routes are available:

MPH (Nutrition) FT (X299)
Duration
1 Years
Attend
Full Time
Deadline
Rolling*
MPH (Nutrition) PT (X300)
Duration
2 Years
Attend
Part Time
Deadline
Rolling*

* Courses will remain open until such time as all places have been filled, therefore early application is advised