Nurhazani Mohd Shariff

Reforming hospitality program of higher educational institutions

The hospitality program in Malaysia was first formally introduced by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, University Institute of Technology MARA (UiTM) in 1967. In line with the increasing demand for hospitality graduates nowadays, the Higher Educational Institutions in Malaysia established the program, which is being offered by both public and private institutions, such as Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Taylor’s University College, Begi University College, Damansara Utama College and Limkokwing University of Creative Technology. In fact, taking this matter seriously, Berjaya University College and Legend International College are also offering full-time and short courses on the hospitality program. This paper describes a case study undertaken at UUM as one of the Higher Educational Institutions in Malaysia offering the hospitality program. UUM offered the Bachelor of Hospitality Management (BHM) with Honors beginning 2004 within the Tourism and Hospitality Department. Currently it is offered under the UUMCollege of Arts and Sciences, with the department emphasizing producing graduates who are knowledgeable both in theory and practical. In addition, it also intends departing graduates to become experts in the specialized area of hospitality, and is achieving its vision of becoming a world-class hospitality program. The hospitality program at UUM is designed with a competitive structure, which comprises modules and coursework, in line with other hospitality education courses throughout the world. In general, the hospitality program consists of five major components, namely, University Core Courses, Program Core Courses, Foreign Language, Practicum and Free Elective Paper.

Investigating hospitality graduates knowledge, skills and abilities using Delphi technique

A specific gap identified from literature on graduates knowledge, skills and abilities showed that none has studied in the context of industry perspectives using Delphi technique.This study used Delphi technique and distributed three rounds survey questionnaires among 16 representatives of four and five star lodging in Peninsular Malaysia. The Delphi analysis ended up with 69 items represent hospitality graduates knowledge, skills and abilities in the context of Malaysian hospitality program.The items were categorized into four domains namely Workplace, Academic, Management and Personal Effectiveness.The study highly contributes to the implementation of Delphi technique as effective tool in determining the graduates knowledge, skills and abilities. Further, it also assists the academic institutions specifically in Malaysia by strengthening the foundation of hospitality curriculum taking into account the four identified domains.

Developing index competency for the Malaysian tourism and hospitality graduates

Various models have been developed for the purpose of identifying graduates competencies. However, such specific model has not been found in the context of Malaysian tourism and hospitality education.This study develops an index competency for the Malaysian tourism and hospitality graduates through the perspectives of the industry.The process of developing the index consisted of three major stages—items generation, items verification and items development.The developed index contributes to the planning and designing the tourism and hospitality program more effectively by taking into consideration the competencies required by the industry. Hence it also assists the graduates to survive within the industry as they possess what the industry wants.