 |
| Merry Christmas from Ioannis |
Recent articles have asserted the demise of, and questioned the need for hospitality education. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that some of these assertions have been inaccurate at best, or specifically designed to fit certain agendas at worst. One such article (Jones, 2019) tends to focus on the undergraduate story perhaps because it is easier to unearth data. That particular article does suggest a better collaboration between industry and academia and with that I couldn’t agree more. However, far too often authors neglect the postgraduate taught or research student profiles, thus addressing only part of the hospitality education story.
Let us not forget that there are examples where hospitality management education is thriving with significant investment in quality labs and even hotels. Indeed, I hope you will join us for CHME 2020 and experience for you selves some of the newest facilities at Sheffield Hallam University. To any hospitality educator or researcher, these facilities are a dream.
We must not forget that in the UK we are not producing just great hotel managers but amazing hospitality leaders and critical thinkers fit for directors’ positions and beyond. Our students find careers that take them onto diverse and wonderful paths. This has become both our strength and our weakness. Our strength because it is wonderful to see our hospitality students headhunted by major companies in other industries and our weakness as we lose our hospitality grown management talent to another service or technology sector.
Having said that, I agree that it is also time we take stock of how hospitality management education may have evolved in the UK, particularly in HE institutions. We must refocus our efforts to develop more innovative programs and realign our courses to attract students from underutilised markets. This is why CHME, in partnership with the Institute of Hospitality, has commissioned an independent piece of research on the future of hospitality management education, the results of which we hope to share at the CHME 2020 conference. This is the time to galvanise our efforts and collectively navigate these treacherous times.
At the same time, to ensure the relevance and fit of our educational provision with industry needs, I was honored to help reopen the dialogue with industry with the help of EP and we are taking a collective approach by inviting hospitality academic leaders beyond the CHME membership to join the conversation and further explore how we may collectively strengthen links between academia and industry . We are engaging at a far closer lever with Springboard and Peoples 1st than ever before, we have stretched the efforts of the CHME executive beyond that which one would normally expect from a team of volunteers.
I am truly proud of the efforts of my colleagues at CHME (both past and present) and I do not take our responsibility lightly. We keep advancing the agenda of hospitality management education both in the UK and abroad. However I also believe that we can do better and we can do more but to achieve this, we need the commitment and help of every colleague in hospitality management education, without your participation our efforts may be rendered meaningless.
I wish you the very best for the upcoming Christmas break may you spend it with loved ones and may you find a little time to reflect on what more we can do to safeguard the future of hospitality management education. We are always open to great ideas and suggestions.
Merry Christmas Everyone
Dr IoannisS. Pantelidis FIH, CHME Chair.
PS. This is a slightly adapted message from my message in the the December CHME newsletter.
Comments
Post a Comment