Queen’s University Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast is one of Europe’s leading nutrition universities. In this case study, Anne Nugent, senior lecturer in nutrition at Queen’s University Belfast, discusses the challenges presented by a lack of suitable nutrition software for teaching and how the Department of Biological Sciences has overcome this by building a partnership with Nutritics.

Demand for nutrition and dietetics graduates has never been stronger across the food and health industries. Consequently, additional pressures are being placed in academic institutions to deliver high caliber graduates that will shape these industries into the future. Anne has recognized this need and the importance of “future-proofing” the Queen’s nutrition programme. As part of this, the University has partnered with Nutritics to ensure their students are prepared in the best way possible for their career.

Anne’s background is a mix of industry experience and academia. With a PhD in Nutritional Immunology, she has worked with the British Nutrition Foundation in London and the National Dairy Council. Alongside this, Anne has lectured in nutrition at University College Dublin (UCD), where she acted as course coordinator for BSc Hons Human Nutrition prior to moving to Queen’s University.

Anne notes that “bringing a practical angle to teaching nutrition is vitally important”. She searched the market, but found many nutrition software solutions were dated, often with limited access, which was simply not feasible for the digital age. Anne and her colleagues were “keen for students to use a software that they would likely use in the ‘real world’”.

Alongside choosing a software that their students would use after graduation, Queen’s needed a tool with the “ability to design more stimulating practical classes”. Student engagement and interest is often influenced by the technology being used in the classroom. A reliable and easy-to-use software was essential.

Anne was familiar with Nutritics from her previous roles and she was able to quickly guide her department to a suitable product for their needs.
The main reasons for implementing Nutritics were:

• User friendly
• Accuracy of data
• Applicability in a real world sense
• Quick feedback and help when needed from the Nutritics team

“For students it is real-time saving!! No data lost! There lots of other advantages such as the user friendly and intuitive interface and the integration of portion sizes.

“Using Nutritics has been very beneficial in my role as a lecturer. Practical classes are now far more efficient and it is easy to merge data in the software. Being able to merge outputs to generate a master file for analysis has immensely reduced my workload and saved time I could spend more efficiently.

“For students, inputting food diaries, for example, is real time saving and images of foods are really helpful. The feedback has been great too!”

“We are really impressed with Nutritics. There is a constant emphasis to integrate research into teaching to stay ahead of future trends. Nutritics helps us to ‘future-proof’ our teaching, by ensuring that our students are familiar with all the new and innovative ways that food intake is measured. Additional features in the software, such as the food label and new product development tools, ensure that our students are learning about the latest legislation and innovations in the food industry.

“We’ve had a very successful year using Nutritics and look forward to making sure we get the most out of Nutritics into the future.”