Completing my honours degree at ACU has been essential to furthering my academic career, enabling me to obtain teaching and research assistant positions. A personal goal of mine was to improve my academic writing skills, and the option to write a journal article allowed me to refine my writing skills and provided me the opportunity to submit my research article for publication.

Rebecca Payne
Nutrition Science Honours 2023

The Bachelor of Nutrition Science (Honours) is a one-year full-time (or equivalent part-time) program for students who have already completed a relevant Bachelor degree. The program provides students with the opportunity to apply knowledge gained in their Bachelor degree in a specific context within the field of Nutrition Science. Students will be able to explore and engage in the research process in detail, immerse themselves in a research project and write a thesis. The Honours program equips students with the necessary training and experience to pursue postgraduate research study and supports students to develop in-demand industry skills.

Check the relevant handbook for details of the Honours program

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Projects available for 2026

Individuals with type 2 diabetes are regularly included in clinical trials which investigate dietary and/or exercise advice. However, there is a large gap between what is conducted in a clinical trial and what exists in the "real world" for people with type 2 diabetes. This project aims to capture the experience with and utilisation of health care services to manage type 2 diabetes, with regards to nutrition and physical activity/exercise. This project will involve qualitative interviews with individuals with type 2 diabetes, to help understand barriers and facilitators to making changes to behaviours to manage diabetes and inform future research.

Project supervisor(s) and contact email address: Dr Evelyn Parr (evelyn.parr@acu.edu.au), Dr Lachlan Mitchell, Dr Brooke Devlin (UQ)

Campus where project is available: Melbourne

Knowledge and skills in culinary arts is increasingly recognised as an important area of study for students in human nutrition science degrees in order to take advantage of emerging opportunities within industries that are looking for graduates with culinary, food and nutrition science expertise. Undergraduate nutrition science degrees have traditionally attracted students with an interest in food and nutrition from a dietary intervention perspective with varying levels of interest and literacy in the culinary arts. Through the development of a purpose-built survey, the project will collect baseline data from 1st years nutrition science students to measure their culinary science literacy.

Project supervisor(s) and contact email address: Sharon Croxford (Sharon.croxford@acu.edu.au) & Emma Stirling

Campus where project is available: Melbourne and North Sydney

Teaching kitchens provide opportunity for participants to increase their food and nutrition related knowledge and skills, through practical activities, and achieve positive health outcomes. Teaching kitchens can have many different delivery formats including fixed locations, mobile or online and can reach into communities to deliver interventions. The aim of this research project is to understand the need for a teaching kitchen delivering targeted culinary nutrition interventions in a central Melbourne local government area, with perspectives from local government, local health services, residents, practitioners, and academics used to inform a proposed model.

Established Supervisor: Associate Professor Sharon Croxford

Emerging Supervisor: Dr. Emma Stirling

Hydration is critical for performance. Dehydration not only reduces physical performance but also performance across a range of cognitive tasks including sensation, perception, motor coordination, executive function, attention, and memory. It also appears to impair learning in school children, but whether dehydration impairs the learning of sport-related motor skills remains unknown. Sport-related motor skills are often developed through implicit learning, capitalising on subconscious processes to automate the skill performance, making it more robust in the face of fatigue or psychological pressure. Therefore, this study will assess the impact of thirst and hydration status on implicit learning in young adults.

Project supervisor(s) and contact email address: Doug Whyte (doug.whyte@acu.edu.au), Adrienne Forsyth, Helen Aucote, Ryan Tam

Campus where project is available: North Sydney and Melbourne

Elderly patients with fractured neck of femur are often malnourished on admission. Malnutrition can lead to delayed recovery, an increased length of stay, and increased risk of postoperative complications. Blanket referral to dietetic services and implementation of strategies to prevent or manage malnutrition enables access to dietetic services without the need for screening of this high-risk group. This project will assess the effectiveness of the implementation of the ortho-geriatric clinical pathway with a retrospective audit of dietetic interventions and nutrition outcomes.

Project supervisor(s) and contact email address: Adrienne Forsyth (Adrienne.forsyth@acu.edu.au), Lachlan Mitchell, Adam Walsh, in collaboration with St Vincent's Hospital

Campus where project is available: Melbourne

Archived projects

A multifactorial approach to the development of a pictorial menu in a residential aged care facility

Characterising Current Dietary Intakes and Exploring the Relationship between

Eating Disorders, Food Choices, and Behaviours in Adults with Scleroderma

Dietary intake, nutrition beliefs and attitudes of pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease

Family meals and parental diets: An exploratory study into the food and nutrition-related experiences of parents with autistic children

Assessment of dietary quality during time-restricted eating

Determining the efficacy of two oral iron supplements in female team sport athletes with low iron stores

Understanding patient perspectives of face-to-face versus video telehealth/telephone dietetic service for outpatients attending radiotherapy and day chemotherapy services

Evaluating the impact of advanced scope of practice for dietitians in gastrostomy care in regional Victoria

Honours student publications

Donovan, C., Tam, R., de la Piedad Garcia, X., Forsyth, A. (2024). Dietary Intakes, Behaviours and Disordered Eating for Adults with Scleroderma: A Systematic Review. Presented at the Australasian Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (AuSPEN) Annual Conference, 14-16 November, 2024, Brisbane.

Thompson, E., Forsyth, A., Walsh, A. (2024). Dietary intake and nutrition interventions in pregnant women with inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review. Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 39(S1), 320). https://doi.org/10.1111/jgh.16706

More information

If you have any other questions in relation to completing an honours degree, please contact Associate Professor Adrienne Forsyth, National Course Coordinator via email: adrienne.forsyth@acu.edu.au

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