Curriculum Development in Hospitality and Tourism Higher Education: challenges and gaps

Abstract

The positive growth of the travel and tourism industry in the 20th century is set to continue in the 21st century. This phenomenon creates a number of challenges for travel and tourism educators who have to respond accordingly. However, it appears hospitality and tourism education society has evolved in a heterogeneous and ad hoc manner and does not necessarily meet the needs of the travel and tourism industry. This is because there are many challenges and gaps involved in the curriculum development process. And, we should recall that this development process is intended to enhance the graduates' knowledge and skills, and employability in the sector. The current issue is to understand all partners in the knowledge exchange and transfer processstudents, teachers, institutions and the hospitality industrywith the aim to enhance teaching and learning outcomes through quality curricula. Subsequently, through systematic literature review and multi stages of analysis in the research tradition, the article shows four critical thematic obstacles for educator of tourism and hospitality higher education in dealing with curriculum development such as (1) the need of information and communication technologies (ICT), (2) human resources issues on graduate's competency, job, and career aspiration, (3) curriculum content towards knowledge and skill formulation that aligned with the industry and business expectation, (4) a high-quality education that produces effective teaching & learning strategy and significance research impact. The dimension of social sciences study reflects this study's attention to draw constructivist educational theories to understand the possible approaches focuses upon a particular sphere, which predominantly recognize the wake of the industry's dynamic growth in the light of the curriculum study and hospitality and tourism discipline. After all the study highlights the aim of educational curriculum is to create the 'complete learner' rather than merely concentrating upon what curriculum needs to offer-as it is not possible to incorporate all existing knowledge in one particular curriculum..

Entrepreneurial Attributes and Entrepreneurial Intention among Hospitality Students in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions: An Educational Approach

“…Employers feel that despite spending 3-5 years acquiring a diploma or bachelor's degree in hospitality, many graduates lack the necessary experience, competence, and skill to satisfy the demands of the hospitality business (Malay Mail, 2020). Hence, some studies have investigated the employability of hospitality industry undergraduates in terms of qualifications, particularly working experience, participation in non-formal programmes, and their skills and abilities (Fraser, 2019;Tolkach & Tung, 2019;Kusumawardhana, 2020). Based on the findings by Hossain et al (2018), in Malaysia, having good grades did not ensure that undergraduates would get employed.…”