Undergraduate Curriculum Content Research Articles

Evaluating Undergraduate Curriculum in Hospitality Management: A Comparison between China and South Korea

ABSTRACT The fundamental purpose of any hospitality and tourism educational program is to cultivate the skills and talents of future industry leaders to fit the needs of the industry. In this way, tourism services or products meet international standards for both domestic and foreign tourists alike. This research aims to evaluate the undergraduate curriculum content in Chinese and South Korean universities, in line with contemporary tourism and hospitality by reviewing literature. Content analysis is employed to analyze the undergraduate curriculum content. 20 Chinese and 10 South Korean universities’ curriculum content were selected as a sample. The research result indicates that the Chinese curriculum is business-oriented with tourism and hospitality subjects included, while the curriculum in South Korean universities has independent hospitality programs. South Korea’s curriculum is more targeted in the tourism and hospitality-related subjects and engaged in the internationalization of talent training. Both countries’ curriculum content has a shortage in balancing the theoretical subjects and practical training. There is also a lack of courses to help graduates adapt to the dynamic development of the tourism industry. The study provided valuable information in Asian hospitality curriculum design, which has theoretical and practical implications for contributing to hospitality education.

Engineers: Going Global

This article demonstrates the need for engineering courses in UK higher education to give a higher priority to global and sustainability issues. In support of this case, the author summarizes and assesses evidence from a recently-concluded study by the Institute of Education, University of London, and Engineers Against Poverty, a specialist international development non-governmental organization working in the field of engineering and international development. It is argued that engineering does and can play a major role in combating global poverty, and that higher education needs to prepare engineers for these challenges. Tim Feest, Executive Director of the UK's Occupational Standards Council for Engineering, considers the report of the study and the effect its recommendations, if implemented, would have on engineering undergraduate curriculum content in UK higher education institutions.

Confidentiality within physiotherapy: perceptions and attitudes of clinical practitioners

Objectives—This study examined the issue of confidentiality in relation to i) undergraduate curriculum content in physiotherapy, and ii) the awareness, experiences and attitudes of clinical physiotherapists. Design—Postal survey of universities...

Determining undergraduate curriculum content in plastic surgery.

The purpose of this study was to determine the cognitive knowledge and clinical skills related to plastic surgery that are essential for inclusion in an undergraduate curriculum. A questionnaire was distributed to surgical clerkship directors, plastic surgeons, and 1980 graduates of four medical schools. Respondents were asked to rate (0-3) the importance of 74 knowledge items and 28 clinical skills in relation to the knowledge/proficiency necessary for students to achieve prior to graduating from medical school (0 = unnecessary, 3 = indepth knowledge/proficiency important). Results of the questionnaire enabled the determination of mean response scores and the hierarchical ranking of questionnaire items. There was a high degree of correlation between the rankings of the three groups of respondents indicating agreement on knowledge and clinical skills in plastic surgery that are essential, as well as those nonessential, for the competent practice of medicine.