24 July 1992 New Lincoln Hotel Management Degree Takes Shape with Help of Visiting International Expert

Plans by Lincoln University to offer a degree in Hotel and Institutional Management degree are taking a major step forward with the presence on campus of an international authority on hotel and institutional management, Professor Gerry Glover, from Hawaii Pacific University.

Professor Glover, who developed and implemented the world's first quality management programmes in the hospitality industry, has been a consultant to such organisations as Hilton Hotels, Club Med, the American Hotel and Motel Association, and Nikko Hotels International.

At Lincoln University he is advising on the structure and content of the new degree and the type of academic staff appropriate to teaching the programme.

While in New Zealand he is also developing an industry liaison committee relating to the new qualification, and giving seminars to industry personnel.

As an academic at the Hawaii Pacific University Professor Glover co-ordinates a Professional Certificate in Total Quality Management and an advanced Travel Industry Management programme.

Through his teaching, publications and consultancy work Professor Glover has had a major influence on service industry management worldwide. Indeed he pioneered the concept of Total Quality Management, now widely applied in the service field.

Lincoln's new degree will be a specialist option within the Bachelor of Commerce qualification. The B.Com. (Hotel and Institutional Management) is seen as a logical extension of the Bachelor of Commerce (Tourism) degree which was introduced in 1989. Some students have been enrolling in that degree with the intention of moving into the hotel industry.

In Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia there are many universities which offer degree level programmes in hotel management.

In New Zealand training in hotel and institutional management has traditionally been carried out by polytechnics. However, for several years some hotel industry leaders have been keen to extend specialist training in hotel management to a degree qualification.

Lincoln University does not see its new programme as competing directly with the National Diploma in Hotel and Catering Administration offered at polytechnic and technical institute level.

"That qualification is focused on the day to day operational activities of the industry. The Lincoln degree is a business management qualification that includes applications to a particular industry," says Academic Registrar Roger Smyth.

"The two qualifications have a different focus and are aimed at different groups of students with different aspirations. There is 'room' for education at both levels."

Students embarking on the new programme will have to complete a core of compulsory subjects common to all Lincoln's Commerce degrees, plus a period of practical work. While they may start their general B.Com. degree studies next year, the specialist Hotel and Institutional Management papers will not be open to them until 1994.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand