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Hospitality management programs, similar to other fields within higher education, are faced with numerous challenges including decreased funding and competition for students.In an effort to boost enrollment, researchers suggest a transformation of higher education, placing students at the center of these initiatives.With a focus on service, particularly student-staff interactions, knowledgeable and experienced faculty have been shown to increase perceived service quality. This research sought to quantify students’ perspectives regarding the importance of faculty members’ hospitality industry experience in an effort to meet expectations, which may translate into greater undergraduate enrollment, retention and graduation rates. A large sample (n = 1130) of undergraduates from the U.S. participated in the study from hospitality programs ranging under 500 to over 1000 students.

Despite the popularity and growth of online courses in hospitality higher education, there still exists ambivalence toward this form of course delivery. Greater scheduling flexibility and accommodation of an ever-growing population of nontraditional students are presented as sup-porting online course adoption in programs still apprehensive toward this form of instruction.Given the pervasive nature and accessibility of Internet-based learning, this study utilized the technology acceptance model to determine the academic referent group influences on students’intentions to enroll in an online course. Findings revealed plausible referent group influences that could be leveraged to encourage students to enroll in an online course, which would ultimately facilitate a positive learning experience.

The rapid growth of online learning in higher education has been met with varying degrees of acceptance among faculty and administrators. Although hospitality management instructors recognize the prominence of online learning as the future of higher education, their current apprehensions may hinder institutional strategic objectives. This study examined hospitality instructors' intentions to teach an online course, using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), deconstructing subjective norms into student, colleague, and department chair influences. The findings from this research will be useful to program administrators who seek to encourage hospitality faculty to teach online courses.

In an effort to keep abreast of convention industry demands for a more qualified workforce, some hospitality and tourism undergraduate programs have implemented courses to prepare students for employment in the business. However, limited information exists regarding the content and quality of these programs and whether they are designed to adequately meet the needs of the industry. This current study evaluates the convention course offerings at the top 25 ranked hospitality and tourism undergraduate schools (Brizek & Khan, 2002). Course objectives, assessment and teaching methods, topics of instruction, and textbooks were analyzed using nonparametric statistics and CATPAC software to determine the similarities and differences among the various course offerings. Results revealed statistically significant differences among courses characterized as General MICE (Meetings, Incentive Travel, Conventions, Events) Industry, Convention and Meeting Planning, and Event Management. Limitations and suggestions for fu...