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Please help!

Dear Sir,
We really appreciate the efforts by the National Council and IGNOU to upgrade the diploma programme into a degree programme. I am an IHM Hyderabad student from the 1998 batch and am presently working in Mumbai in the sales department of a hotel for last three years. I wish to speak on behalf of my colleagues who are at present going through the same distress as me. We feel inferior to even BA, BCOM and BSC degree holders since they are officially graduates and can do post graduation studies which we could not though our past academic records were good. Inspite of going through entrance test and a high profile course, our academic growth is stunted since most students do not pursue an additional correspondence course, being completely absorbed in our catering course on one hand and subsequent hospitality jobs on the other. Even foreign multinational hotel chains are asking for MBAs for their sales, HR and finance jobs and we feel left out. Even they look for simple graduates for some operations jobs and we are dismayed having put lot of money and effort in a highly professional course like hotel management.

I think, the National Council needs to look into this direction and find a possible solution for our problems as soon as possible. It will help all of us to do post graduation studies related to hospitality since we all love this field and want to be a part of it. We are ready to do another course if needed by IGNOU or the National Council. We hope that this request of ours is taken into consideration at the earliest.

Thanking you,
(On behalf of thousand of students)
Rahul Rakesh

Budget Blues

Dear Sir,
Alan D’Mello’s article ’Mumbai Budget Hotels: Harvest In Winter’ (Express Hotelier & Caterer, October 21) provided an insight into the trends expected in this segment of the hotel industry which is slowly gaining ground what with cost-cutting and all that.

The segment, as the author correctly puts it, has become more competitive and with the memories of a disastrous year behind them are looking forward to recouping the looses suffered.

Let’s hope that the industry looks up.

Yours Sincerely
Sushmita Rai
Bangalore