Undergraduate Diploma in Hospitality

Course Description

The hospitality industry is vast and fast-growing. It encapsulates service-centred businesses such as hotels, restaurants, wellness centres, cruises and tourism.

The programme will delve into the service businesses in hospitality and cover overarching areas such as operations, finance, health and safety, work ethics, communication, customer care, supervisory skills and consumer behaviour.

Student will also learn about contemporary issues related to hospitality and innovation in hospitality in order to gain in-depth understanding of this industry.

The overall course objectives are:

Knowledge:

• Give due consideration to legal, regulatory and ethical frameworks related to hospitality.
• Understand the roles and functions of hospitality and its impact on local and global economy.
• Develop the body of knowledge about consumer behaviour, contemporary issues in hospitality and prevalent trends related of business development and innovation.
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the importance of having HR, teamwork and leadership competencies in hospitality context.
• Understand underpinning principles of supervision and human resources skills needed in hospitality.

Skills:

• Evaluate and assimilate knowledge of communication skills, customer needs and relevant professional responses in hospitality setting.
• Formulate responses to well-defined concrete and abstract problems and challenges in hospitality context.
• Recognise and assess the needs of hospitality customers and understand the importance of applying customer care and communication skills to deal with customers and other stakeholders.
• Evaluate relevant specialist theory and practice related to operations, finance and cashier management in the context of hospitality industry.
• Analyse ethical and health and safety issues related to hospitality in complex business situations.

Competences:

• Show creativity related to working with multidisciplinary teams in providing a holistic approach to hospitality.
• Assess the importance of ethical practice, and personal experience, values and attitudes in working within hospitality sector.
• Develop a capacity for independent thought and be reflectively self-critical.
• Manage projects and tasks independently that require communication and problem- solving techniques where there are many factors, some of which interact and lead to unpredictable outcomes.

Entry Requirements

Candidates who apply for this course must possess the following:

• a qualification at MQF Level 4 (one ‘A’ Level or equivalent in any subject);

AND

• a pass in English Language and Mathematics at MQF Level 3.

Preference is given to applicants having a year of work experience in an area related to this study programme.

*Students whose first language is not English will be required to either present formal English language qualifications at IELTS 6.0 or equivalent or demonstrate proficiency through written and oral communication.

Target Audience

This course is targeted at:

• Individuals seeking academic and professional advancement in Hospitality;
• Mid-career break professionals looking for opportunities to return or change their career.

Career Paths

The possible positions for which this programme aims to prepare you for include, but are not limited to:

• Front Office Manager
• Operations Supervisor/ Manager
• Guest Relations Manager
• Casino Manager
• Cruise Ship Supervisor
• Spa Manager
• Events Executive
• Wedding Coordinator
• Food Operations Manager
• Housekeeping Manager

Modules

You are required to complete all 8 compulsory modules (48 ECTS), and only 2 elective modules out of the proposed 4 (12 ECTS) to fulfil the requirements of this Undergraduate diploma

How you’ll be assessed

This is a part-time programme and will typically take 15 months to complete. The programme comprises a total of 10 modules. The method of assessment is assignment-based.

The course comprises:

• 6 lectures per module;
• 3-hour lectures (evening);
• 12 hours of guided learning, presentations, comprising synchronous online discussions, tutorials and/or videos;
• Self-study hours comprising research, reading and assignment work.

Assessment

Overall assessment weighting for each theory-based module consists of: Assessment of each module consists of two assignments, each carrying a weighting as below:

a) One Formative assignment carries 20% of total module mark achieved. b) One Summative assignment carries 80% of total module mark achieved.

For successful completion of a study module the student is required to achieve a minimum of 41% pass mark in both the formative and the summative assignment.

The overall grade achieved for each module is calculated as the sum of:

• 20% of the mark achieved for formative assignment; and
• 80% of the mark achieved for the summative assignment.