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Volume 31, Issue 3 (2014) FIU Hospitality Review v.31 i.3

Forward and call to attention


 The number of hospitality graduate programs has increased from 25 in the 1990s to 31 in 2013 (Van Hoof, Wu, Zhang, and Mattila, 2013), which has demonstrated a strong growth in hospitality graduate education. Despite the fact that hundreds of students are working towards a MS or PhD degree in hospitality, research on hospitality graduate education is relatively scant, and most attention on hospitality education has been devoted at the undergraduate level (e.g., Tews and Van Hoof, 2011). More research is needed on topics that relate to hospitality graduate education, which is the foundation of hospitality management education and research. In the current issue, Van Hoof and colleagues (2014) set out to understand the factors that influence students’ choices of hospitality graduate programs. Results indicate that students made their decisions mainly based on their perceptions of the admission processes, faculty interactions, living conditions, and the reputations of the programs, faculties and locations.
 Future research should explore other aspects of hospitality graduate education to answer the following questions: (1) How to increase the diversity of students? More research is needed on how to attract domestic students in order to increase diversity. Currently, international students, especially Chinese and Korean students, make up a major portion of the hospitality graduate programs’ student bodies (Van Hoof et al., 2014). How different will the US hospitality education be in 10 years if a majority of its future professors are Asian? Additionally, what does this demographic shift mean for hospitality education in general? (2) What is the value of having a graduate degree? The core capabilities and skills a student should have upon graduation warrants further investigation. To help identify the skills, researchers could interview employers such as corporate recruiters for MS level and universities for PhD level graduates. While faculty hiring criteria are clear and consistent in general, for example, the three most important criteria for assistant professors are a PhD degree, publications, and industry experience (Woods, Cho, and Schmidgall, 2008), it remains unclear what industry partners’ criteria are of hiring a MS graduate. (3) How to assess the quality of hospitality graduate programs? Previous studies on quality assessment mainly adopted the ranking method based on factors such as curriculum, resources, research requirements, faculty involvement, etc. (Brizek and Khan, 2006). However, what constitutes quality in programs in a ranking study has been at the center of controversy (see Khan et al., 2013 for a review). Therefore, methods other than ranking should be encouraged in assessing the quality of a graduate program.

Call to Action:
1. Conduct research studies to address issues and challenges related to hospitality graduate education.
2. Collaborate with recruiters to understand their perspectives.
3. Use a combination of quantitative methods (e.g., experiments and modeling) and qualitative methods (e.g., interviews and focus group) to provide a more complete picture.
4. Expand the research by incorporating international hospitality graduate programs rather than just focusing on American programs.
References:
Brizek, M. G., & Khan, M. A. (2006). Ranking of U.S. hospitality graduate programs: 2002-2003. FIU Hospitality Review, 24 (1), 1-9.
Khan, M. A., Lee, S., & Park, K. (2014). A longitudinal study of hospitality and tourism management graduate program quality assessment rankings: 2002-2012. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 25 (4), 193-205.
Tews, M. J., & Van Hoof, H. B. (2011). In favor of hospitality-management education. FIU Hospitality Review, 29 (2), 121-129.
Van Hoof, H. B., Wu, L., Zhang, L., & Mattila, A. S. (2013). Characteristics of U.S. graduate hospitality programs. FIU Hospitality Review, 31 (2), 42-54.
Van Hoof, H. B., Wu, L., & Zhang, L. (2014). Hospitality graduate students’ program choice decisions: Implications for faculty and administrators. FIU Hospitality Review, 31(3).
Woods, R. H., Cho, S., & Schmidgall, R. S. (2008). Faculty hiring criteria in hostility education
            programs. FIU Hospitality Review, 26 (1), 47-54.

Full Issue

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Hospitality Review Volume 31 Issue 3 2014
FIU Hospitality Review

Articles

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The Study of Clustering of Taiwanese Tourists' Motivations to Hong Kong
Diann Newman, Ed.D.; Yung-Kun Sung*; Hung-Sheng Lai; and Wei-Ni Shyu

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Gimme' A Break: Offering Sabbaticals as an Optional Leave Benefit in the Lodging Industry
Kimberly J. Harris, Gretchen L. Rivera, and Cydna Bougae

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Hospitality Graduate Students’ Program Choice Decisions: Implications for Faculty and Administrators
Hubert B. Van Hoof, Luorong Wu, and Lu Zhang

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A Review of Merger and Acquisition Wave Literature: Proposing Future Research in the Restaurant Industry
Jewoo Kim and Tianshu Zheng

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Reaching an Underserved Wine Customer: Connecting with the African American Wine Consumer
Rhonda Hammond, Sandra Sydnor, and Eunjoo Kang

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An Evaluation of Three Nutrition Labeling Formats for Restaurant Menus
Li Ge, Carl Behnke, and Barbara Almanza

Publisher:

Mike Hampton, Dean, Florida International University

Editor in Chief:

Randall S. Upchurch, Associate Dean-Academics, Florida International University

Managing Editor:

Catherine Curtis, Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University

Communications Editor:

Nathan Dodge, Assistant Director, Florida International University

Editorial Board:

Barbara Almanza, Professor, Purdue University

Mark Bonn, Professor, Florida State University

Robin DiPietro, Associate Professor & Director of the IIFRE, University of South Carolina

Chekitan Dev, Professor, Cornell University

Nicholas Hadgis, Dean, Widener University

Kimberly Harris, Professor, Florida State University

Leonard Jackson, Associate Professor, University of Memphis

Michael Kasavana, Professor, Michigan State University

A.J. Singh, Associate Professor, Michigan State University

Sandy Strick, Director of Graduate Studies, University of South Carolina

Hubert Van Hoof, Professor, The Pennsylvania State University

Technical Assistant Editor:

Dale Gomez, Director, University Computer Systems, Florida International University


The FIU Hospitality Review is published by the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, Florida International University, North Miami, Florida. International
Standard Serial Number: ISSN 0739-7011.

Contents © by FIU Hospitality Review. The reproduction of any artwork editorial or other material is expressly prohibited without written permission from the publisher, excepting the one-time educational reproduction which is allowed without express permission. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2013.

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