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M.S. in Food Systems Administration (Online)

Program Description:

The mission of the M.S. in Food Systems Administration program is to provide students with knowledge and skills related to food systems administration as preparation for administrative positions in foodservice/nutrition departments of hospitals, schools, universities, and other institutions.

Career Outlook:

Career possibilities for graduates of this program include:

• School foodservice administrator
• Healthcare foodservice administrator
• Business owner/entrepreneur
• Foodservice management consultant
• Food distributor account manager

Degree Program Requirements:

Students may complete the M.S. in Food Systems Administration with a Thesis Option (30 credit hours) or Professional Paper Option (36 credit hours). All students must complete NFS 5773 (Organization & Management of Foodservice Systems) and an additional 11 hours of Institutional Administration courses.

In addition, all students complete 3 credit hours of statistics or research design and 2 credit hours of seminar. Students choosing the thesis option will take 6 credit hours of thesis (NFS 5983 and NFS 5993) while students selecting the Professional Paper option will complete 3 to 6 credit hours of NFS 5973.

In addition to required courses, students may take online elective courses in Business, Nutrition, or Statistics/Research Design to complete the necessary number of hours. A maximum of 6 credit hours of research/independent study/cooperative education/internship may also be included in a degree program.

Description of Teaching Methods:

The M.S. in the Food Systems Administration program is predominantly Internet-based. Most courses are offered as a combination of Internet and a few (3-4) Saturday or evening meetings. The on-campus meetings allow time for orientation of students to courses, brief lectures by faculty, guest speakers, student presentations, interactive student discussions, and field trips. Online course components include assigned readings from online journals or textbooks, summaries of topics, writing assignments, projects, discussion boards on current topics, on-line quizzes, and exams.

Courses are taught from the Denton or Houston campuses with videoconference provided to other TWU campuses. Out-of-state students can enroll, as long as they can make travel arrangements to attend Saturday classes at one of the locations. Blackboard software is used to support the Internet component of courses.

Admission Requirements:

• B.S. from an accredited university with a minimum 3.25 GPA (on 4.0 scale)
  
• Graduate Record Exam (GRE) with preferred minimum score of 350 on verbal portion and 450 on quantitative portion
• Prerequisite courses*:
  o Introduction to Nutrition (3 hrs)
  o Microbiology (4 hrs)
  o Quantity Food Production & Service (4-5 hrs)
  o Upper level Foodservice Management and/or Business courses (6 hrs)
  o Introduction to Accounting (3 hrs)

*Students who lack some of the prerequisite courses may often complete them at a local community college.

For More Information:

Contact any of the following:

Denton:

Houston:

Page last updated July 13, 2006

Texas Woman's University
Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences