Graduate Education in Risk Analysis for Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Medicine: Challenges and Opportunities

The notion of risk in relation to food and food production has heightened the need to educate students to effectively deal with risk in relation to decision making from a science-based perspective. Curricula and related materials were developed and adopted to support graduate learning opportunities in risk analysis and decision making as applied in agriculture, veterinary medicine, and the life sciences. Student and instructor interviews, course evaluations, and expert reviews of course syllabi and the program description were used to determine the value of formalizing this interdisciplinary graduate minor/certificate program. The quality of the three graduate level core courses developed and delivered exhibited the merit of the program but a major challenge remains with regard to long-term sustainability of this specialized training.