Hospitality education in China: A student career-oriented perspective

Hospitality and tourism management programmes are one of the rapidly developing subject areas in Chinese universities. With the rapid growth of the hospitality industry, increasing numbers of high-ranking research-based universities are now offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in hospitality management. However, hospitality education development is a typical example of the imbalance between supply and demand of hospitality graduates from Chinese universities. Using a case from South China University of Technology, this paper first analyses current hospitality programmes in China, and then makes suggestions for solving current problems and addressing future development of hospitality education in China. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.