Maeve Cusack and Áine Murphy, graduates of the MSc in Dairy Process Technology, and Innovation, celebrated their conferring at University College Cork (UCC) last month. This employment-based postgraduate programme is a collaboration between UCC and Kerry Dairy, and has been running since 2021.

The programme offers graduates a unique opportunity to complete a master’s in dairy process technology through UCC while working across Kerry Dairy's dairy processing sites in Listowel, Charleville, and Newmarket. For two years, employees undergo the part-time, postgraduate degree while working, drawing from UCC food science graduates.

According to Professor Seamus O’Mahony, it is an “example of academia working with industry to address an identified skills-need and support the development of the next generation of scientific leaders in the industry.

“The programme is one of a range of new initiatives in dairy and food science designed to create greater access to lifelong and life-wide learning opportunities for recent graduates and company employees in the dairy sector,’’ says Seamus.

About the students

Maeve Cusack, a native of Tower, Co Cork, graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Food Science from UCC. Science and food are an integral part of Maeve’s family history. She participated in the BT Young Scientist competition twice while attending Coláiste Choilm in Ballincollig. Her sister studied nutritional sciences at UCC’s school of food and nutritional sciences, and her father works as a dairy farm manager.

Áine Murphy, a UCC BSc (Hons) food science graduate, comes from a farming background in Ballyfoyle, Co Kilkenny. Áine was the only third-year food science student to complete an industry-based work placement in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, having travelled to New Zealand to work with dairy company Synlait.