| Author: | Tagbor, Anne Adjoe Kokui |
| Title: | Is there an ideal hotel management study curriculum? |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Subject: | Hotel management -- Study and teaching. Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | xii, 318 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The quality of any educational curriculum is essential in keeping the programme competitive. For hospitality curriculum to have a competitive edge, it has to under-go continuous and rigorous research and review, in order to incorporate contemporary needs that will meet current and future generations' needs. Meanwhile, little research has been carried out in hospitality curriculum in Asia, especially in Hong Kong. Most of the existing body of knowledge in hospitality curriculum design, development, and review issues is generated in the West and examined from a Western cultural perspective. Further, holistic studies that view the key stake-holders (student, industry, graduate & educator) are very limited worldwide and missing in Hong Kong. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of an excellent curriculum, specifically, the stake-holders' expectations and satisfaction of an ideal curriculum and preferred graduate. The study is descriptive and exploratory in design. A qualitative approach was adopted using focus group and in-depth interview techniques. Twenty interviews (18 in-depth & 2 focus groups) were conducted and samples selected purposively through non-random sampling to share the interviewees views on the two government funded bachelor programmes and the self-financed conversion programmes. The major findings of the study are that; 1) there is no ideal hospitality curriculum; 2) informants holistic views (standards) could be helpful to the educator in making curriculum decisions to improve the curriculum; and 3) curriculum reform is vital to improve the calibre of graduates. Overall, stake-holders expect hospitality / hotel curriculum to provide graduates with personality and inter-personal competencies, strong operational competencies, reality life exposure competencies as well as academic and intellectual competencies. Additionally, internship, learning and teaching were prominent among other standards for an excellent curriculum. All stake-holders to a large extent, expressed a high level of satisfaction with the curricula and graduates. However, some issues were highlighted for critical consideration such as; maximum opportunity for all students to practice in the teaching hotels and the lack of corporate level competencies. Finally, a strong and continuous collaboration among the stake-holders is the bedrock to the success and sustainability of hotel / hospitality curriculum. A five-celled Hospitality Curriculum Matrix (HCM) was formulated from the emerged enormous list of competencies to help hospitality programmes position themselves into categories as; 1) broad hospitality education, 2) specialised hospitality education, 3) broad hospitality training, 4) specialised hospitality training and 5) hospitality training and education (general). |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b24631474.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.29 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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