Abstract
Hospitality is not a new industry in Asia, but high quality hospitality industry has become more and more important in the trend of questing service-based economy and the increasing number of tourists in Asia. Thus there are more universities opened hospitality degree programs in Asia, Taiwan is no exception. In this context, why high school graduates will choose hospitality as their college major? What are their expectations on their future education experience in the hospitality program? To answer the above questions, this research adopted semi-structured interview as research method. Ten vocational high school students in Taiwan were interviewed in this research. This research generated similarities and differences of opinions among these ten students, students generally thought university education can help their employability in the future because their enhancement of professional skills and knowledge. Their expectations of an ideal hospitality program environment include well-prepared equipment, industrial and international internship opportunities, and international campaign participation. In terms of the key elements of hospitality courses and curricula, students expect internationalized content and quality, professional technical training, foreign language training, management ability, and interdisciplinary content.
Highlights
In response to the global higher education competition, universities all try to enhance their quality and form school features to attract students
Ten vocational high school students in Taiwan were interviewed in this research
In the academic year of 2011, the total number of hospitality bachelor degree program students in Taiwan is 15,526 and it ranked as the top ten programs in terms of student number when comparing it with the other bachelor programs in Taiwan (Ministry of Education in Taiwan, 2013)
Summary
In response to the global higher education competition, universities all try to enhance their quality and form school features to attract students. Hospitality industry became a significant business in the world because of the emerging globalization. This trend is no exception in the Asia region. There are more universities opened hospitality degree programs in Asia, Taiwan is no exception. In the academic year of 2011, the total number of hospitality bachelor degree program students in Taiwan is 15,526 and it ranked as the top ten programs in terms of student number when comparing it with the other bachelor programs in Taiwan (Ministry of Education in Taiwan, 2013). In the academic year of 2012, the number of total hospitality major bachelor students grew to 17,170 (Ministry of Education in Taiwan, 2013)
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