Position paper: Needs analysis and trends in sustainable food systems within higher education

Food production has to take into account a number of global challenges, such as growing demand for food worldwide, climate change, food loss, changing diets, and water scarcity, as well as competing claims, including the need for animal feed, fibre for clothing and biofuels for energy. Global warming is likely to lead to greater incidence of agricultural yield shocks in certain regions, land fragility, and seed fragility, and will add to the complexity of the challenges at hand. A Master’s course with a specific integrated and international outlook would fill an increasing need and result in the transfer of knowledge, experience and standards to developing countries, as well as promote an excellence of European education. Hence, the project group developed a unique proposal within the Erasmus Mundus framework, European Master of Science in Sustainable Food Systems Engineering (FOOD4S - ‘food force’). Quality assurance and monitoring of the programme is of utmost importance for the management board. The survey on ‘satisfaction analysis on teaching performance’ is currently being performed for the preceding Erasmus Mundus programme, on which the FOOD4S proposal has been built. The results will be used to improve the ongoing and perspective programme in terms of particular aspects.