A Proposed Tourism Master's Degree Curriculum for Indonesia: The Experts' Views

Abstract

Previous studies on tourism education in the US suggested that most of the tourism curricula were designed by educators with little or no representation from the tourism industry (Golden 1992; Koh 1995). This prevalent approach is a traditional provision-centred approach to education, in which the teacher decides on the aims and objectives of the courses, the modes of delivery and other aspects of teaching and learning (Cooper, Shepherd and Westlake 1996; Smith and Cooper 2000). As a result, the industry perpetually complains that the graduates do not meet the industry needs and expectations. Furthermore, the level of acceptance of the tourism graduates in the industry is also relatively low. Therefore, Koh (1995) recommends designing a curriculum that is based on marketing approach by involving the industry in the process of course content selection. The approach is also recognized as the competitive approach (Smith and Cooper 2000).