International Hospitality and Tourism Management - 2012 entry

Course content

You can view the course structure here. The following compulsory modules enable you to develop a deep understanding of the complexity of the international hospitality, travel and tourism environment:

Hospitality Operations Management introduces you to the complexity of hospitality operations within an international context. Drawing on relevant operations management principles, you will acquire an understanding of financial, human resource and marketing management knowledge at the unit level, which underpins the successful management of accommodation, food and beverage operations. There will be site visits to local hospitality businesses to familiarise you with practical examples from industry, and a computer-based hotel business simulation assignment.

Tourism and Hospitality Synthesis offers you an introduction and overview of the context, frameworks, concepts, theories and issues in the contemporary tourism and hospitality industries. The module provides you with the basis to systematically and incisively analyse and evaluate complex tourism and hospitality situations.

Tourist Consumer Behaviour investigates the theoretical frameworks derived primarily from the marketing discipline, which underpins patterns of consumer demand and usage. It incorporates models and concepts drawn from mainstream marketing, tourism marketing, and the social sciences, forming a comprehensive understanding of tourist consumer demand. While the theoretical contribution is generic and applicable to any tourism specific situation, an appreciation of the current global trends in tourist consumer behaviour is developed. The main focus of the module is the tourist decision-making process, but the inseparable nature of the product as an extended experience necessitates consideration of on-site consumption and post-experience behaviour. There will be site visits to local tourism organisations to familiarise students with practical examples from the industry.

Marketing Management for Travel and Tourism builds on the understanding of tourist demand developed in Tourist Consumer Behaviour, and examines the marketing management response. For travel and tourism, effective and creative marketing based on sound analysis is important at both the strategic and tactical level, and is relevant to the complete range of tourism sectors and categories. Students will work with the different elements of marketing including the marketing plan, and apply these ideas to different examples from the tourism industry. In raising students' critical appreciation of the complexities of marketing management in travel and tourism, key trends and issues will be explored, including the incorporation of sustainability into marketing management thinking. The module will draw on internal and external expertise in tourism marketing from academia and industry.

Contemporary Issues in International Hospitality and Tourism Management provides you with the opportunity to develop a research specialism in climate change, entrepreneurship, environmental issues, finance, human resources, marketing, or the internet as applied to the international hospitality and tourism sector, or you can choose another contemporary topic from a wide range of options. In this module you will research a contemporary subject area, critically analyse the literature and theory, and write an article suitable for publication in an academic journal. In undertaking this module you will work on your own with the support of an expert tutor.

You can choose one elective from a choice of hospitality, tourism or business modules including Destination and Event Development, Interactive Skills in a Cross-Cultural Context, and Internet Strategies for Tourism Distribution. Other electives may also be available.

Research Methods provides you with an introduction to research methods so that you are aware of the approaches, methodologies and resources available for your dissertation. You will design a research project which ensures that you generate the information required to write the dissertation.

The Dissertation develops your ability to critically review literature, to identify the gaps in knowledge and practise relevant research skills to facilitate data collection, analysis, interpretation, presentation and writing. The 20,000 word dissertation provides you with the opportunity to investigate a topic in depth from multiple perspectives, working independently and supervised by a specialist tutor. You choose the hospitality or tourism management topic which you wish to study - this can be the same topic as in your Contemporary Issues module or a different subject area.

The sandwich mode comprises one year of full-time MSc taught study and one year of full-time supervised work experience. You have two options:

• You can join the programme in January and take the Professional Practice module. This provides up to 26 weeks of supervised work experience at an operative level in Oxford before starting the MSc taught component in September. You would then complete your year's work experience by taking the Professional Development module after finishing the taught part of the programme.
• OR - you can take all of your work experience after studying the MSc taught component. The sandwich mode of study provides paid, supervised work experience to support your academic studies with a suitable international hospitality and tourism employer, and you carry out an assessed project for the company.
• There may be opportunities for placements in international hotel and tourism companies.

To find out more about this course, please visit the Oxford School of Hospitality Management’s website.

• for information about the part-time mode, see part-time PDF
• for information about the sandwich mode, see sandwich PDF.

As our courses are reviewed regularly, course content and module choices may change from those listed in the course entry.

Faculty

Faculty of Business

Department

The Oxford School of Hospitality Management

Course length

Full-time: MSc: 12 months or 24 months in sandwich mode
Part-time: MSc: 24 months for UK and EU students (teaching normally structured to provide one day or two half days each week in the semester)

Teaching location

Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane

Start date

September or January 2012
January 2013

UKPASS code

P022521

Entry requirements

Normally a minimum of a good second-class honours degree or equivalent. Entry will also be subject to two satisfactory references (one of these must be an academic reference). Although useful, prior work experience in the hospitality and tourism industry is not an entry requirement for this course. Applicants who have limited work experience in the hotel and tourism industry can join the sandwich mode and undertake the Professional Practice module, which starts in January each year.

Scholarships and funding

For general sources of financial support, see:

• funding for students from the UK and EU
• funding for students from outside the EU

Why Oxford is a great place to study International Hospitality and Tourism Management

Our students tell us they enjoy living in Oxford due to the small-city scale, the wonderful historic buildings, and the vibrant international student atmosphere. As a master's student you can benefit from the hospitality and tourism learning opportunities provided within Oxford – for example, the renovated Ashmolean Museum, Britain's oldest public museum; hotels such as the Old Bank, Malmaison and Randolph; historic pubs and ethnic restaurants. We sometimes visit these businesses and their managers talk to our students about the practice and realities of hospitality and tourism management.

In addition to the Oxford Brookes University library, students have access to Oxford University's Bodleian Library, which is an excellent resource for the dissertation.
 

Support for students studying International Hospitality and Tourism Management

Students are provided with strong support mechanisms to help them in their demanding study schedule. Help and advice for students is provided by the programme director, module leaders, individual tutors, dissertation tutors, and the Oxford School of Hospitality Management administrators. The school’s careers and work placement office is in close contact with hospitality and tourism employers to help students with careers and work placement advice. 

How Brookes supports postgraduate students

Supporting your learning

From academic advisers and support co-ordinators to specialist subject librarians and other learning support staff, we want to ensure that you get the best out of your studies.

Personal support services

We want your time at Brookes to be as enjoyable and successful as possible. That's why we provide all the facilities you need to be relaxed, happy and healthy throughout your studies.

Departmental research highlights

The Oxford School of Hospitality Management is ranked number one in Europe for hospitality research, and top in the world for research productivity (Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, March 2011). 

Research areas and clusters

The Business School has an active programme of research based around six key research areas:

• accounting, governance and information management
• economics and strategy
• hospitality, leisure and tourism management
• human resource management and organisational behaviour
• marketing and operations management
• pedagogy.

The school maintains a rigorous and dynamic doctoral programme leading to the higher degrees of MPhil and PhD. Postgraduate students join a supportive, friendly and multicultural research environment.

The Oxford School of Hospitality Management focuses its research interests on the hospitality and tourism industries and is recognised in the most recent research assessment exercise (RAE) as 'one of the leading hospitality research groups in the UK'. Our hospitality and tourism research areas include:

• consumer satisfaction
• education, careers and development
• environmental management and food studies
• entrepreneurship and small business management
• internationalisation and branding
• performance measurement and financial management decision making.