Course description
MSc
Accredited by the European Foundation for Management Development Accreditation System (EPAS) and by the Institute of Hospitality.
The MSc in International Hospitality and Tourism Management provides an opportunity for honours graduates from unrelated disciplines such as art, economics, history, languages and linguistics, law and politics to study travel and tourism at the postgraduate level. Although beneficial, prior work experience in the hospitality and tourism industry is not an entry requirement for this programme. The focus of your studies will be on understanding the international hospitality and tourism environment. We recruit students from all around the world, and this creates an exciting multicultural study atmosphere. This master’s programme has flexible study modes: full-time and sandwich for all students and part-time for British and European Union students.
Our aim is to provide you with intellectual and professional development, and to develop your understanding of hospitality and tourism business practice and public sector tourism issues from multiple perspectives. You will be introduced to a range of concepts and theories that will enable you to analyse tourism and hospitality contexts in national and international situations and in the private and public sectors. The programme will explore current and future trends in tourism management, enabling you to further develop your analytical and decision-making skills. Many students have been able to develop a career in hotels, travel and tourism after graduating from this programme.
Hospitality and tourism education at Oxford Brookes University Business School has an excellent, international reputation for quality and innovation in learning and teaching. Leading hospitality organisations visit the campus to recruit students, and our dedicated careers service and master's sandwich mode of study provide graduates with accelerated career opportunities. There may be opportunities for placements in international hotel and tourism companies.
Course content
The following compulsory modules enable you to develop a deep understanding of the complexity of the international hospitality, travel and tourism environment:
Hospitality Operations Management introduces you to the complexity of hospitality operations within an international context. Drawing on relevant operations management principles, you will acquire an understanding of financial, human resource and marketing management knowledge at the unit level, which underpins the successful management of accommodation, food and beverage operations. There will be site visits to local hospitality businesses to familiarise students with practical examples from industry, and a computer based hotel business simulation assignment.
Tourism and Hospitality Synthesis offers you an introduction and overview of the context, frameworks, concepts, theories and issues in the contemporary tourism and hospitality industries. The module provides you with the basis to systematically and incisively analyse and evaluate complex tourism and hospitality situations.
Tourist Consumer Behaviour investigates the theoretical frameworks derived primarily from the marketing discipline, that underpins patterns of consumer demand and usage. It incorporates models and concepts drawn from mainstream marketing, tourism marketing, and the social sciences – so forming a comprehensive understanding of tourist consumer demand. While the theoretical contribution is generic and applicable to any tourism-specific situation, an appreciation of the current global trends in tourist consumer behaviour is also included. The main focus of the module is the tourist decision process, but the inseparable nature of the product as an extended experience necessitates consideration of on-site consumption and post-experience behaviour. There will be site visits to local tourism organisations to familiarise students with practical examples from industry.
Marketing Management for Travel and Tourism builds on the understanding of tourist demand developed in Tourist Consumer Behaviour, and examines the marketing management response. For travel and tourism, effective and creative marketing based on sound analysis is important both at the strategic and tactical level, and is relevant to the complete range of tourism sectors and categories. Students will work with the different elements of marketing including the marketing plan, and apply these ideas to different examples from the tourism industry. In raising students’ critical appreciation of the complexities of marketing management in travel and tourism, key trends and issues will be explored, including the incorporation of sustainability into marketing management thinking. The module will draw on internal and external expertise in tourism marketing from academia and industry.
Contemporary Issues in International Hospitality and Tourism Management provides you with the opportunity to develop a research specialism in climate change, entrepreneurship, environmental issues, finance, human resources, marketing, or the internet as applied to the international hospitality and tourism sector, or you can choose another contemporary topic from a wide range of options. In this module you will research a contemporary thematic area, critically analyse the literature and theory, and write an article suitable for publication in an academic journal. In undertaking this module you will work on your own with the support of an expert tutor.
You can choose one elective from a choice of hospitality, tourism or business modules including Destination and Event Development, Interactive Skills in a Cross-Cultural Context, and Internet Strategies for Tourism Distribution. Other electives may also be available.
Research Methods and Dissertation provides you with an introduction to research methods so that you are aware of the approaches, methodologies and resources available for your dissertation. The module enables you to design a research project that will ensure that you generate the information required to write the dissertation. You will develop the ability to critically review literature, to identify the gaps in knowledge and develop relevant research skills to facilitate data collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation and writing. The 20,000 word dissertation provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned and what you can do, and it shows whether you have the ability to work independently. You choose the hospitality or tourism management topic which you wish to study - this can be the same topic as your Contemporary Issues module or a different subject area.
The sandwich mode comprises one year of full-time MSc taught study and one year of full-time supervised work experience. You have two options:
* You can join the programme in January and take the Introduction to Work module. This provides 26 weeks of supervised work experience at an operative level in Oxford before starting the MSc taught component in September. You would then complete your year’s work experience by taking the Manager in Development module after finishing the taught part of the programme.
* You can take all of your work experience after studying the MSc taught component. The sandwich mode of study provides paid, supervised work experience to support your academic studies with a suitable international hospitality and tourism employer, and you carry out an assessed project for the company.
Teaching, learning and assessment
The “Oxford Brookes innovative learning experience” on this MSc includes strong links between the Tourist Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Management modules, with field trips and student presentations on ‘hot topics’. The Hospitality Operations module combines practice with a computer based simulation to introduce you to the crucial links between financial, human resource, marketing and operations management. The Contemporary Issues module provides you with the opportunity to research and write an academic journal article on any hospitality and tourism topic. You can be confident about the expertise of your tutors; all are involved in research and/or consultancy activities, and many have written internationally recognised hospitality and tourism textbooks. They bring their excellent links with the hospitality and tourism industry into the classroom to inform you of contemporary developments taking place in the real world. Learning and teaching is very much student-centred, participative and interactive. You will take part in workshops, seminars, lectures, case study analysis and one-to-one tutorials.
The full-time mode involves approximately 15 hours of contact time per week, but in addition there is a significant amount of independent and group study time. You will therefore be expected to take a great deal of responsibility for your own learning and to manage your time effectively. Assessment is based predominantly on individual coursework and the dissertation.
Quality
The reputation of the Business School is underpinned through membership of and programme accreditations received from the Association of MBAs, the Association of Business Schools, and professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and the European Foundation for Management Development. The Business School is, therefore, widely regarded as one of the best within its peer group.
The Business School’s programmes benefit from rigorous quality assurance procedures and regularly receive excellent feedback from external examiners, employers, students and professional bodies. In 2005 Business and Management achieved ‘Broad Confidence’, the best possible result, in the discipline audit trail as part of the Quality Assurance Agency Institutional Audit.
Many students who graduate from Business School programmes go on to achieve high status in the industry of their choice.
Our research interests focus on the hospitality and tourism industry and we were recognised in the most recent research assessment exercise (RAE) as ‘one of the leading hospitality research groups in the UK’. Our hospitality and tourism research areas include:
* consumer satisfaction
* education, careers and development
* environmental management and food studies
* entrepreneurship and small business management
* internationalisation and branding
* performance measurement and financial management decision making.
All our lecturers have considerable industry experience and are active consultants/researchers. We publish our research in generic, hospitality and tourism academic journals and we author subject-specific textbooks. We enjoy supervising PhD students, many of whom were students on this master’s programme before embarking on their own academic career.
