Stakeholders' expectations of hotel management education: A Malaysian perspective.

Development of the tourism industry in Malaysia is a recent phenomenon. Today, the industry is one of the major revenues of the Malaysian economy. As elsewhere, the Malaysian tourism industry is labour intensive; much of its future success depends significantly on the quality of its labour. While industrial growth generally is making great impact on the Malaysian economy, there has been considerable debate about the contribution of Malaysian higher education, including hotel management education. Critics have commented that graduates lack certain basic competences and that higher education providers have not kept up with the times. Educational institutions have been criticised for not developing appropriate competences required by industry, especially for the entry-level management position.At the same time, the current state-of-the-art in the hotel business is becoming more sophisticated and complex in today's robust business environment. This poses additional challenges for hospitality management educators in developing nations. It is widely acknowledge that today's entry-level managers need a diversity of competences in order to meet the demands of the industry. In this respect, an effective hotel management education programme must be able to respond to the demands of the competitive business environment. At the same time, the rapid development of new hotel or hospitality management programmes, not to mention the enrolment figures of existing hotel schools, has led to an increased concern about programme credibility and effectiveness. Educational institutions must respond to the requirements and needs by developing relevant knowledge and competences. This research project proposes that actual needs (based on the Malaysian context) should be investigated and referred to in curriculum planning. These needs should be drawn from relevant key stakeholders based in industry and wider areas of society.The study does not attempt to empirically investigate the pedagogical issues related to curriculum planning or provide a total definition of a curriculum. Nevertheless, the findings of this study do provide a concrete foundation and aspiration for educators to consider when designing hotel management curriculum. However, the issues of learning, teaching and assessment have been incorporated in developing a conceptual curriculum planning model in order to provide a comprehensive view of the planning process.To collect the data, the research project utilised a combined-method approach: mailed questionnaire and semi-structured interview. Factor Analysis was conducted on the data. The analysis reveals that the one hundred and four (104) competence statements were represented by twenty-five (25) factors (loading factor of greater than .40). These factors captured 73.2 per cent of the total variance. Of the twenty-five (25) factors,thirteen (13) factors had a single loading, presumably error factors. However, they were included in the discussion since they provided useful dimensions of this study. These competence statements were further treated by one-way ANOVA to determine the differences among stakeholders. Overall, most of the differences were detected between students and educators and students and industry professionals. Differences between educators and students and educators and industry professionals were also detected, but to a lesser extend. Overall, the results have indicated that even though there are differences in the stakeholders' expectations, there is consensus regarding the central themes of hotel management education. Stakeholders considered personal (self) development and communication as crucial ('soft' domain). At the same time, the results revealed that technical (operation), and functional competences are equally crucial in developing future managers.The outcomes of this study lead to the development a conceptual curriculum planning model for hotel management curriculum relevant to the needs of Malaysia (or elsewhere), as well as in other vocational areas. The model can be applied in the ongoing evaluation of hotel management education programme.