Analysis of training and education needs of mainland
Chinese tourism academics in the twenty-first century
Hanqin Qiu Zhang
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Terry Lam
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Thomas Bauer
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Keywords
Tourism, Training needs,
Qualifications, China
Abstract
China's tourism and hotel education at tertiary level started in the late
1970s. A lack of qualified tourism educators and employees is a common concern for all levels of
Chinese tourism education. Further education and training for the faculty in institutions has become an urgent need for the Chinese government and the institutions themselves. The purposes of this study are to examine the education needs of tourism academics in terms of their perception of the value of upgrading their qualifications, the likelihood of further studies, levels of attainment, preference of study places and possible barriers; to understand the degree of importance of upgrading their qualifications; and to identify the main tourism training and education issues facing China in the twenty-first century. The results suggest that the Chinese academics perceive upgrading their qualifications and getting more exposure to the outside world as important to them. The training and education issues facing China in the twenty-first century are improvement of the tourism education system and its structure, improvement in the design of the syllabuses with more language training and the balance of theory and practice, change from a traditional teaching mode to a more modernized innovative and interactive teaching mode, and greater responsiveness of education to the needs of the industry.
International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality
Management
13/6 [2001] 274±279
# MCB University Press
[ISSN 0959-6119]
[ 274 ]
Introduction
As a result of the implementation of the opendoor policy of reform and the growth of tourism, China's higher education in tourism tooks its first step at the end of 1970s. In 1979, the first tourism college, Shanghai Institute of Tourism was founded (Jin and Yu, 1990).
The preparatory division of the Beijing
Tourism Institute was established in the next year. In the 1980s, the China National
Tourism Administration (CNTA) set up tourism departments in seven colleges and universities to meet the needs of developing managerial personnel for the tourism industry. Meanwhile, many other colleges and schools began to set up their own tourism departments or specialities. The development of higher education in the last two decades experienced four distinct periods: from 1978 to 1983, it grew at a slow rate; from 1984 to 1988, the process accelerated; from 1989 to 1992, it slowed down; and from 1993 until today, it enters into a higher speed of development.
According to the Chinese government statistics (China National Tourism
Administration, 2000), there were 209 higher learning institutes and colleges with tourism departments or schools in mainland China at the end of 1999, an increase of 22 from 1998, with an enrolment of 32,737 which was 21,300 more than 1998 (not including Hong Kong,
Macao and Taiwan). Among the 209 tourism academic institutions, none of them offers
PhD-level education in hotel and tourism
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft disciplines, although there are some schools offering PhDs in geography, economics, or management. About 15 schools have graduatelevel specialization, and the rest have undergraduate-level specialization
(Tau, 1998).
China's tourism and hotel education at tertiary level started in the late 1970s and a lack of qualified teaching staff is a common concern for all levels of Chinese tourism education. Unlike the teaching faculty members at the hospitality
