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| Extra helping for food technology |
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| Author : Massey University
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| Created : 14 Sep 2002
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| Last Revision : 14 Sep 2002
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Cereal king Dick Hubbard is offering four $6000 Food Technology scholarships to Massey University students in a bid to feed an industry desperately short of qualified talent.
A Massey graduate in food technology himself, Dr Hubbard says he studied the subject in the sixties when it was a ‘new fangled’ degree.
“Thirty-seven years later, I’m still in the food business and the degree in food technology still exists. Pleased I did this particular degree course? You bet!” he says in Clipboard, the newsletter he writes and puts in the millions of boxes of varied and innovative breakfast cereals that have made him a household name.
The scholarships will give successful students $1500 a year for the four-year Bachelor of Technology (Food Technology) which focuses on the design and development of new food products.
“I am very concerned about the lack of students doing food technology and it’s a degree that is misunderstood because people don’t know what it is about,” he says.
“I am also concerned about the general lack of applied scientists.”
Dr Hubbard says he has just employed another food technologist and that final-year students are being “snapped up” before they graduate.
“Once in the food business, career opportunities abound in all sorts of areas. Some of my contemporaries have risen to chief executive positions with some of New Zealand’s largest food companies. Some, like me, have set up their own business.”
Scholarship applicants must write to Dr Hubbard and outline reasons for wanting to be a food technologist. He is looking for people with a genuine desire to do the degree, not necessarily those who have the highest marks. “I wasn’t a top student myself,” he says. “An entrepreneurial spirit helps but mainly applicants just have to be clear about their future.”
Professor Ray Winger, Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, says Dr Hubbard’s offer of scholarships is having a significant effect on recruitment of food technologists. “We are receiving a steady flow of requests for information as a direct result of his promotion, encouraged by his generous offer of four scholarships.”
Professor Winger says Dr Hubbard often says his experiences and path to success were built on the base of a Massey University food technology degree. “His enthusiastic support for Massey and promotion of this degree programme is absolutely fantastic. The monetary contribution in terms of scholarships is outstanding and truly appreciated. This is impressive recognition of the relevance of the food technology degree to the future growth of the New Zealand food industry and reflects the commentary I routinely receive from the wider food industry. Dick is one of many leading food industry figures who proudly acknowledge receiving a Massey University Food Technology degree.”
This year represents the 40th Anniversary of food technology at the University and will be celebrated with a reunion in Palmerston North on Monday, 30 September.
For further information contact Massey University.
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