History

Rapid growth and development of nutrition science is getting along with medical and health science knowledge expansion. Nutrition education institution was initiated from a formal education for diploma program, and now it has grown and has its own bigger responsibility so that the human resources from nutrition science are demanded to have master and even doctoral degrees. The demand of nutrition science development is not bordered by academic titles but also continued by more advanced and practical stages, which is the profession. This thing is not missed out as the implication of the increasing service standard and healthcare services quality. As the health problem worldwide is experiencing development in terms of its complexity, nutrition should exist and help the problem related to food and nutrition which will be faced by human beings in the following decades, including Indonesia.

The commitment of the Indonesian Government to increase the wealth of the society along with its nutritional status is very direct and clear. This direct commitment is reflected by the consensus to refine nutritional status among society poured as the priority in terms of Health Development 2010-2014. The aim of putting society nutritional status improvement in the priority list is due to the main aims to achieve decreasing prevalence of malnutrition according to the World Food Summit Declaration in 1996 which was passed to Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. This direct action is also being executed as the National Rule No 36 year 2009 about health, especially in Chapter VII discussing nutrition, clause 141 sentence 1 stated that the effort of nutrition improvement for society was aimed to increase both the individual and society nutrition quality. One of the most important factors which influence the success of nutrition improvement efforts is the condition of existing professionals in nutrition.

The problems faced as the effort to improve nutrition in terms of human capital factors is the limited number of nutrition professionals such as nutritionists that should be in the nutrition service unit and the incongruity skill between the nutritionist and the existing programs and problems. Faculty of Public Health Universitas Airlangga is one of the top tier educational institutions in Indonesia famous for its good health education quality. For its astonishing performance, the Faculty of Public Health is expected to be able to participate in terms of human capital supply, especially a qualified nutritionist in Indonesia that has the ability to give alternative strategies to face and solve health problems among the society that is related to nutrition. For that reason, to prepare and accelerate the fulfillment of nutrition in Indonesia, it can be started by initiating academic education for bachelor degree which is Bachelor of Nutrition Education.

In April 2023, the Bachelor of Nutrition Programme was officially launched through the Decision of Universitas Airlangga Headmaster No.6093/UN3/KR/2013 on April 15, 2013.