Nutrition and Medical Sciences BSc

If you’re fascinated by how food affects the body — from how we grow to how we age, stay healthy, or develop disease — UCL’s BSc in Nutrition and Medical Sciences is a great choice. It’s a science-based degree that blends biology, medicine, and nutrition, with a strong focus on real-world health challenges like obesity, malnutrition, ageing, and global public health.

Whether you’re thinking about a future in healthcare, research, public health, or further study (like dietetics or postgraduate medicine), this course gives you a solid foundation to build on.

Curriculum structure

Here’s how the course is structured over three years:

Year 1
You’ll start with the science basics: human physiology, cell biology, anatomy, and biochemistry. You’ll also dive into Nutrition and Metabolism, where you’ll explore how the body uses nutrients and what happens when things go wrong — like in malnutrition or obesity. It’s a mix of lectures, lab work, and small-group teaching, so you’ll get a strong grip on the fundamentals early on.

Year 2
Now that you’ve built a solid base, things get more focused. You’ll study how disease develops on a molecular level (Molecular Basis of Disease), how we grow and develop, and dig deeper into metabolism in Nutrition and Metabolism 2. Modules like Malnourishment and Obesity look at global nutrition challenges, and you’ll start learning how to critically assess scientific research — a really valuable skill if you're thinking of working in research or health policy.

Year 3
This is your most independent and applied year. You’ll do a research project on a topic you choose (with support, of course), which is a great chance to specialise or explore something new. Other modules include Applied Nutrition, Public Health Nutrition and Epidemiology, and Sports Nutrition, plus options like Frailty and Ageing or Behavioural Nutrition. It’s a chance to explore how nutrition fits into real-world settings — from hospitals to sports teams to international development.

Focus areas

Metabolism, disease prevention, growth and ageing, obesity and malnutrition, public health nutrition, global health, microbiome, sports nutrition, behavioural science, and applied medical nutrition.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you’ll know how to apply nutrition science to health and disease, understand how the body works at every stage of life, and critically assess research. You’ll also be confident working with scientific teams, designing studies, and communicating complex ideas clearly.

Professional alignment (accreditation)

This degree is accredited by the Association for Nutrition (AfN). That means once you graduate, you’ll be eligible to register as an Associate Nutritionist (ANutr) — a big advantage if you want to work in the UK’s health or nutrition sector.

Reputation (employability / rankings)

UCL is one of the top-ranked universities in the world — it ranks 6th globally for Medicine (QS World Rankings by Subject 2024).
Graduates from this program go on to work in research, healthcare, the food and pharma industries, public health, and NGOs — and over half continue on to further study, including medicine, dietetics, or master’s and PhD programs.