Please join us for a Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs - Online Information Session on October 12th at 7PM ET. Register Here.
Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs offers interdisciplinary training for students seeking careers to improve food policy and food security and nutrition outcomes in industrialized and developing countries. Many applicants have academic backgrounds in related areas, including economics, political science, anthropology, as well as nutrition and the biological sciences, or come to food and nutrition from other fields.
The Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs (FANPP) Program offers a multidisciplinary curriculum in nutrition science, statistics, economics, and food policy.
This program and its faculty are in the Division of Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs.
Prerequisites
To be eligible, applicants must have completed a Bachelor's degree, and have demonstrated their commitment and ability to succeed in the FANPP program through previous coursework, including at least one course in general biology or chemistry, plus employment and volunteer experience. The school has permanently removed the GRE as a requirement. However, applicants to the Ph.D. program are strongly encouraged to submit GRE scores as they can be helpful in the Admissions Committee’s assessment of readiness for doctoral study. Read more about this new change in admissions policy and what it means for your application to the school.
For students taking the GRE who seek to refresh their verbal and quantitative skills, self-study materials and sample questions are available from the Educational Testing Service. Students whose native language is not English must meet TOEFL or IELTS requirements.
Master of Science
For the Master of Science FANPP program, a personalized learning experience is built around forty-eight semester hour units of coursework, including a set of core requirements, specialization requirements, and electives.
In addition to the core courses in quantitative methods, economics, and policy, students in each specialization choose two areas of specialization (consisting of three or more courses) reflecting their professional interests and goals. Specializations fall into various domains including food and nutrition policies and program interventions and food systems in the US and globally; humanitarian assistance; consumer behavior and health communication; food justice and social responsibility; agricultural and environmental sustainability; food business and regulation; and research and evaluation methods. There is flexibility for students to design their own specializations in consultation with their advisors. Students also choose electives drawn from the wide range of courses in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy; Friedman students have access to courses at other schools in the university and at other institutions in the Boston area. All students in the FANPP program complete a professional internship that adds hands-on experience to class-based learning. Learn more details about specializations and their required coursework here.
Students normally complete the Master of Science degree in two years of full-time study; part-time study is also possible.
Doctor of Philosophy
Students enrolled in the doctoral program must have completed courses equivalent to the FANPP master's degree based on previous graduate-level coursework taken either at the Friedman School or elsewhere. Students in the doctoral program participate in the Ph.D. seminar and must pass a written and oral qualifying examination in three areas—Food Policy and Programs, a specialization (of choice), and General Nutrition—and then complete and formally defend a doctoral dissertation based on original research. For more information about that application and admissions process for the doctoral program, please click HERE.
Combined Degree Programs: MALD, MPH, MAHA
Students enrolled in the following combined degree programs complete all the requirements for both degrees, but by counting selected courses toward both programs, they reduce the total time required for completion.
- A combined degree program with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, resulting in both the Master of Science from the Friedman School and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD);
- A combined degree program in association with Tufts University's School of Medicine, leading to the Master of Science from the Friedman School and the Master of Public Health (MPH).
The Friedman School also offers a one-year Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance (MAHA) jointly with the Fletcher School that is open to mid-career professionals in the field.
Shorter, individualized non-degree programs of instruction may be available by special arrangement.
Division Faculty
Sean B. Cash
Associate Professor
Jennifer Coates
Associate Professor
Wenhui Feng
Assistant Professor, Secondary Faculty
Shibani Ghosh
Research Associate Professor
Eileen Kennedy
Professor
William A. Masters
Professor
Daniel Maxwell
Professor
Dariush Mozaffarian
Distinguished Professor
Beatrice Lorge Rogers
Professor
Patrick Webb
Professor
Parke Wilde
Professor
View Current Degree Requirement Worksheet
Click here for quick access to the FANPP Specialization Options
Current students should refer to the degree requirement worksheet associated with their year of entry for the most accurate course requirements.
The Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs (FANPP) degree program offers an exciting curriculum of advanced study in nutrition science, policy and economics, statistics and quantitative methods, applied research skills, and a choice of two specializations selected by the student.
Master of Science Degree
The formal requirements for the Master of Science degree are explained on the FANPP degree requirement worksheet. For the Master of Science FANPP program, a personalized learning experience is built around forty-eight semester hour units of coursework, including a set of core requirements, specialization requirements, and electives. Here below is a brief informal summary of the course requirements.
Required Foundations (5 courses)
Forms for exemptions are available upon request to the registrar
- Principles of Nutrition Science (NUTR 202) or two semester alternative, NUTR 0245/NUTR 0246
- Statistical Methods in Nutrition Science and Policy (NUTR 0207)
- Regression Analysis for Nutrition Policy (NUTR 0307)
- Economics for Food and Nutrition Policy (NUTR 0238)
- Determinents of U.S. Food Policy (NUTR 0303, prerequisites may be required) or Nutrition, Food Secuirty, and Development (NUTR 304, prerequisites may be required) or both
Specializations
Pick 2 or more w/3 courses per specialization
Popular fields of specialization are listed below, with more details online here. Students can also construct self-designed specializations, using the many other classess available at Tufts and elsewhere.
- Nutrition policies and programs -- US
- Nutrition policies and programs -- global
- Economics and food policy
- Research methods
- Epidemiology and data analytics for nutrition
- Health behavior
- Agriculture and sustainable food production
- Food systems -- analytic tools
- Food business and regulation
- Food writing and health communications
- Food justice and sustainable diets
- Humanitarian programs and policy
Internship Requirement
The internship offers experiential learning that complements academic study. It also provides important networking opportunities and helps students build contacts in any field. Learn more about internships at the Friedman School.
Ph.D. Degree
The curriculum for the Ph.D. program includes course work, a qualifying examination that indicates readiness to proceed with dissertation work, and a dissertation that contributes new scholarly research to the food and nutrition policy literature.
Through courses taken at the Friedman School, or by filing a waiver form to recognize preparation elsewhere, Ph.D. students meet all the course requirements for the M.S. degree. They meet a 4-credit minimum requirement at Tufts. Ph.D. students take NUTR: 0204: Principles of Epidemiology, NUTR 0210: Survey Research Nutrition, NUTR 0301: Nutrition in the Life Cycle, and two or more semesters of the Food and Nutrition Policy Doctoral Research Seminar (NUTR 0404). The internship is optional.
Feinstein International Center
This center was established on the conviction that emergency responses grounded in solid political, economic, social, and military analysis can better contribute to durable survival strategies for people coping with violent social change. The center is committed to building strong partnerships with academic, international, national, indigenous, private, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations throughout the world. Applied research and field operations are designed to: 1) strengthen knowledge and promote innovative analysis, 2) build institutional and local capacity, and 3) influence policy. The center has taken a leading role in working with the United States Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, the United Nations, and nongovernmental agencies to train staff in key areas of humanitarian intervention. They have implemented projects including the emergency livestock vaccination, health and nutrition program in countries such as Sudan, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda. Other projects at the Center include the Displacement and Social Change and Public Nutrition programs.
Other Activities
Faculty are also involved as technical and policy advisers to many multilateral agencies, including the World Bank, USAID, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the United Nations' World Food Programme.
Internship Requirements
The internship has several purposes: to give students practical field experience that complements academic study, to give students experience in an institution where they might work in the future, to allow students to determine the kinds of jobs they wish to find after graduation, and to give them an opportunity to make contacts in the professional sphere where they will seek employment.
Read through a sampling of internship opportunities and learn more about internships at the Friedman School on our career services center website.
Graduates from the M.S., Ph.D., and several dual-degree programs possess the skills and knowledge to make an impact on food and nutrition programs and policies in the United States and around the world. Coursework is structured as a foundational core and specializations that provide advanced theoretical and applied preparation for positions in government, research institutions, international agencies, the nonprofit sector, and the private sector in food and agricultural industries.
With the launch of our new Ellie Block and Family Careers Services Center, our support for your career goals has never been stronger. From 24/7 access to a digital resource hub, to job listings and one-on-one appointments with alumni in the field, we've stepped up our services for every student at the school and for every alum in the field.
Our graduates play leading roles in a wide variety of government agencies, research institutions, international programs, the nonprofit sector, and the food and agricultural industries. Here are some representative examples of career placements for new graduates:
- Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator, C-SAFE (Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency), Zimbabwe
- Program Evaluation Specialist, Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, New York, NY
- The Young Professionals program, World Bank, Washington, DC
- Analyst, Abt Associates, Inc., Cambridge, MA
- Founder/Director, Cultural Cornerstones, Jamaica Plain, MA
- Nutrition Policy Advocate, California Food Policy Advocates, San Francisco, CA
- Junior Official, Beijing Administration for Food Safety Monitoring, China
- Humanitarian Program Officer, Oxfam America, Boston, MA
- Program Manager, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, RI
- Manager, Healthy Living Programs, Royal Ahold, the Netherlands
- Program Analyst, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alexandria, VA
- Leland Hunger Fellow, Mercy Corps, Mongolia
Our alumni are highly engaged and form a powerful network of leaders in food and nutrition. When you join the Friedman School and the Food and Nutrition Policy and Programs graduates, you're connected to a wealth of professional experience and mentorship.