VIHTM To Hold National Symposium In February
Will Discuss Quality Assurance In Hospitality Education

Ashish K Tiwari - Mumbai

The Vivekanand Institute of Hotel and Tourism Management (VIHTM), Rajkot, Gujarat, is holding a two-day national symposium to address issues related to quality assurance in the field of hospitality education in the country. The event christened National Symposium on ‘Saga of Hospitality Education - Quality Assurance’ is scheduled to be held on February 14th and 15th, 2003.

Speaking exclusively to Express Hotelier & Caterer about reasons behind initiating the event, Dr Kavita B Sood, principal and director of the institute, informed, “The reason for holding such a symposium is that never before has an event like this been organised by any statutory body or college, especially for quality assurance in the field of hotel management education.

“Also, no statutory body has provided any guidelines or assistance for such quality assurance in terms of course curriculum, minimum qualifications for faculty recruitment, standards of infrastructure provided and standardisation of curriculum on a national level. We have been corresponding with the concerned statutory bodies for more than a year now but nothing has materialised so far.

“Therefore, we thought it appropriate to hold a national symposium involving professionals from the industry, policy makers from various statutory bodies viz AICTE, UGC, Saurashtra University, principals and teachers from colleges across the country to arrive at a consensus on how to ensure standards and quality in a good hotel management college in India.”

Will the student fraternity get to voice their perception at the symposium as well? Asserted Sood, “We believe that today’s students are very brilliant, hardworking and intelligent. Thus, the national symposium will have a student’s forum to facilitate addressing their expectations from good hotel management colleges being approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). We hope that some very startling facts would come out through the symposium and we collectively will be in a position to make valuable suggestions to AICTE Head Quarters for standardisation of curriculum and standards of good hotel management colleges to ensure quality.”

Various high profile personalities including regional directors from AICTE, central zone and western zone of India apart from others related to the education field are expected to grace the symposium. Faculty from various colleges and industry professionals would be making presentations at the symposium.

According to Sood, the seminar theme would revolve around:

• Global standards for global profession
• Looking back and looking forward

This apart, presentations will be made in all core areas of hotel operations viz food and beverage service, food and beverage production, housekeeping and front office, and ancillary subjects. The presentations would also involve innovative teaching methods in the respective areas of operation.

As far as eligibility criteria for participating in the symposium is concerned, the organisers confirmed that there is none and that the event will witness participation from all over the country. “Invitations have been extended to various hotel management colleges in Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Lucknow, Mangalore, Goa, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, New Delhi, Durgapur, Mysore, Patna, Meerut and Dehradun amongst others. The response has been overwhelming and confirmations from various institutions across India have already started coming in,” stated Sood.