Hospitality Graduate Students’ Program Choice Decisions: Implications for Faculty and Administrators

Despite rapid growth in the quality and volume of hospitality graduate research and education in recent years, little information is available in the extant body of literature about the program choices of hospitality management graduate students, information that is crucial for program administrators and faculty in their attempts to attract the most promising students to their programs. This paper reports on a study among graduate students in U.S, hospitality management programs designed to understand why they chose to pursue their degrees at their programs of choice. Given the large numbers of international students presently enrolled, the study additionally looked into why international hospitality management students chose to leave their home countries and why they decided to pursue a graduate degree in the U.S. Based on the findings, implications for hospitality administrators and faculty in the U.S. and abroad are discussed and directions for future research are presented.

GRE as a predictor of graduate student success at a Hispanic serving institution of higher education

Accurately predicting the success of graduate students is an important aspect of determining which students should be admitted into graduate programs. The GRE is a pivotal factor to examine since it is one of the most widely used criteria for graduate school admission. Even though the GRE is advertised as an accurate tool for predicting first year graduate GPA, there is a lack of research on long term success factors such as time to degree and graduate rate (Luthy, 1996; Powers, 2004). Furthermore, since most studies have low minority sample sizes, the validity of the GRE may not be the same across all groups (ETS, 2008b; Kuncel, Hezlett, & Ones, 2001). Another gap in GRE studies is that few researchers analyze student characteristics, which may alter or moderate the prediction validity of the GRE. Thus, student characteristics such as degree of academic involvement, mentorship interactions, and other academic and social experiences have not been widely examined in this context. These gaps in the analysis of GRE validity are especially relevant given the high attrition rates within of some graduate programs (e.g., an estimated 68% of doctoral student never complete their programs in urban universities; Lovitts, 2001). A sequential mixed methods design was used to answer the research questions in two phases. The quantitative phase used student data files to analyze the relationship of two success variables (graduation rate and graduate GPA) to the GRE scores as well as other academic and demographic graduate student characteristics. The qualitative phase served to complement the first phase by describing a wider range of characteristics from the 11 graduate students who were interviewed. Both proximal and distal moderators influence student behaviors and success in graduate school. In the first phase of the study, the GRE was the distal facilitator under analysis. Findings suggested that both the GRE Quantitative and the GRE Verbal were predictors of success for master’s students, but the GRE Quantitative was not predictive of success for doctoral students. Other student characteristics such as demographic variables and disciplinary area were also predictors of success for the population of students studied. In the second phase of the study, it was inconclusive whether the GRE was predictive of graduate student success; though it did influence access to graduate programs. Furthermore, proximal moderators such as student involvement, faculty/peer interactions, motivational factors, and program structure were perceived to be facilitators and/or detractors for success.

Xavier Zapata (FIU graduate student) collecting a groundwater sample, Taylor Slough

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

Xavier Zapata (FIU graduate student) installing a meteorological tower, Taylor Slough

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

Dr. Rene Price and Jeremy Stalker (FIU graduate student) collecting a groundwater sample, Taylor Slough

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under Cooperative Agreements #DBI-0620409 and #DEB-9910514. This image is made available for non-commercial or educational use only.

Ranking of U.S Hospitality Graduate Programs: 2002-2003

Compared to other disciplines, graduate programs in hospitality and tourism management are in their infancy. Rapid changes within the business environment have prompted students in this field to drop a higher level of problem solving skills and scholarship. As the number of graduate programs in hospitality and tourism grows to meet this demand, the need also arises to evaluate each program k resources and contributions to graduate education. This study examines both masters and doctoral degree granting programs in hospitality and tourism management. All institutions were evaluated and ranked based on selected tangible criteria. Rankings of the programs, which were strictly based on their strengths and resources as reported by the surveyed institutions, are reported in this paper.

Managing International Hospitality

To understand today's hospitality industry, executives need to recognize its international dimension. In this, the first part of a two-part article on the international dimension of hospitality, the author considers the forces driving hospitality's internationalization, the advantages drawing foreign investment into the North American market, and the patterns of expansion of American firms in overseas markets. The article is excerpted from Introduction to Management in the Hospitality Industry, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992.

Managing International Hospitality, Part II

The Spring 1992 issue of Hospitality Review featured Part I of this series on the impetus to internationalization of the hospitality industry, as well as the modes of overseas expansion by American firms. In Part 11, the author concludes with a look at the organization of overseas activities in their evolutionary stages and considers, as well, who some of the major international competitors to North American firms are in the international market and in North America. The article concludes with a brief consideration of opportunities for employment overseas.

Administering an International Hospitality Education Program

Understanding the political structure of educations and applying principles of political action may help avoid the destruction of educations alliances formed between partners of divergent backgrounds. The author discusses how this form of analysis may also be of benefit in understanding the problem technically-oriented hospitality programs from abroad often have articulating with the academic administrations in most American universities.

Creating an International Hospitality Management Major

In times of growing international tension and diminishing job opportunities for students enrolled in hospitality management programs, a major with an international emphasis can serve an important role in the global hospitality environment. The author discusses the creation of a new and relatively unique major among hospitality management programs in the United States, international hospitality management, its first year of existence, and its appeal to students.