Ian from United Kingdom
Food and Rural Development Research, MSc
Before postgraduate study
My undergraduate degree was BSc Marketing with Honours in Food Marketing from Newcastle.
Choosing Newcastle
I chose Newcastle initially because of the city's reputation. I am originally from Crewe in the North West so wanted to get away from the area and experience a new place. For postgraduate there was no other choice, I simply knew that Newcastle was the university that I wanted to study at. I had a lot of support from staff members during my degree, when I was applying for my Master's and also when enquiring about future prospects.
Best thing about your degree programme
It builds well on research methods that I gained from my first degree. I like the flexibility to choose modules from other Masters programmes as I am interested in food consumer behaviour. The ESRC, (Economic and Social Research Council), recognition was key to me choosing the degree as I want to progress to PhD.
My favourite module is Food Consumer Behaviour (from the MSc Advanced Food Marketing). Qualitative Methods was also enjoyable.
Thesis
I am looking at an analysis of secondary data on the study of dietary behaviour change. I propose to select a number of different methods of behavioural change analysis that have been used to look at diet and then conduct a comprehensive review of these. I have chosen not to do any primary research as this will link into my PhD should I be successful with ESRC funding.
In the future
I want to continue with my PhD in the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (AFRD) looking at dietary change after the diagnosis of a chronic illness.
Best thing about being a student at Newcastle
This may be strange but I enjoyed putting my PhD proposal together. I suppose this links into the taught modules that were about this and also the dissertation preparation.