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.

摘要

酒店和旅游教育计划的根本目的是培养和发展有技能和才能的未来行业领导者以适应酒店旅游业的社会需求,从而为国内外游客提供符合国际标准的酒店和旅游服务产品。 根据中韩两国目前酒店旅游业高等教育的现状，对比和分析中韩两国高校酒店管理本科课程。本研究采用内容分析法，选取20所中国高校和10所韩国高校的课程内容作为样本对比分析。结果显示，中国酒店管理课程以商务课程为导向，其中包含旅游和酒店管理科目，而韩国高校的酒店管理课程是独立的酒店管理课程。韩国的课程在旅游和酒店相关学科上更具针对性，致力于培养国际化的人才。两国的课程内容都在理论学科与实践训练相平衡的部分有不足，也缺少一些实训课程来帮助毕业生适应酒店旅游业的动态发展。本研究为亚洲酒店管理课程设计提供了有价值的信息，对酒店管理教育的发展具理论和实践意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Hospitality education
• undergraduate
• curriculum content
• China
• South Korea

关键词:

• 酒店管理教育
• 本科课程
• 课程内容
• 中国
• 韩国

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jiang Wang

Jiang Wang is Ph.D. Student in Hospitality Management Department (SIHOM) of Sol International School (SIS) at Woosong University, Daejeon, South Korea. Her research interests include curriculum design, curriculum content, hospitality and tourism education, hotel management, and customer satisfaction (E-mail: [email protected]).

Alaa Nimer Mousa Abukhalifeh

Alaa Nimer Mousa Abukhalifeh is Assistant Professor in Hospitality Management Department (SIHOM) of Sol International School (SIS) at Woosong University, Daejeon, South Korea. Her research interests include hotel management, food and beverage service, restaurant management, service quality, tourism management, community-based tourism, customer experience, service performance customer satisfaction and behavior, developing new scales and working on various methodological aspects of hospitality and tourism research (E-mail:[email protected]).