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FIPSE offers study abroad dual degree program in hospitality management |
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By Lindy Wiggins
 A new program at Oklahoma State University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration will allow students to earn dual undergraduate degrees in hospitality management from OSU and one of two European partner universities.
A $1.4 million grant jointly funded by U.S. Department of Education’s Funds for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) provided the opportunity for OSU to form partnerships with universities in Scotland and Finland. The shared funding will enable students from both sides of the Atlantic to study abroad and gain valuable working experience for 18 months.
“We have created a joint undergraduate degree with a decidedly international focus for the first time in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration,” said Radesh Palakurthi, Charles W. Lanphere Distinguished Professor and the principal investigator and program director for the grant. “As the bar for global competence rises in the hospitality industry, companies are expecting graduates to be better skilled and more comfortable working in foreign environments.”
The program is scheduled to begin during the spring semester of 2010. Four OSU students will attend Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland and four others will attend Turku University of Applied Sciences in Turku, Finland. A total of 48 students, 24 from OSU and 24 from Europe, are expected to graduate from the program by 2013. A total of 96 undergraduate degrees in hospitality management will be awarded through this program.
Parents and students from OSU met with representatives from both European schools to ask questions about the program on Jan. 20.
“The representatives from both schools are extremely excited about the program, as are the OSU students and their parents,” Palakurthi said. “The E.U. partners were surprised to see that the OSU students’ parents also attended the orientation meetings and saw that as a positive sign for the commitment the students and their parents were making for the program. They went back with a very good image about the university and the quality of FIPSE Scholars we have selected for this year.”
Richard Barnes, Head of Articulation and International Academic Development and Deirde O’Donnell, Course Leader of International Hospitality Management, provided information about the program at Robert Gordon University. The students will be studying at The Aberdeen Business School, they said.
Anu Harkonen, International Coordinator and Marita Antikainen, Hospitality Management Program Director told students they would be attending one of the largest schools in Finland and studying in the School of Tourism, Catering, and Hospitality Management.
Harkonen and Antikainen also said that while the majority of classes are currently taught in Finnish at their university, a new English Language curriculum was being developed and so the HRAD students would be instructed in English. However, the students will have to learn conversational Finnish as a part of the FIPSE program. Since most Finland natives begin studying English at the age of nine the OSU students will be comfortable living and studying in the country.
The representatives from both schools told students and their parents that class sizes would range from 20 to 250 and the students would spend six of the 18 months interning for various hotels in each of the countries respectively. They gave tips on travel, housing, meals and health coverage.
“We are very excited about the program and see immense opportunities to sustain it beyond the funding period of the grant,” Dr. Palakurthi said. “The E.U. partners hope to grow the program to include other disciplines across the campus and graduate programs, as well.”
Dr. Palakurthi also commended senior administrators at both the College of Human Environmental Sciences and Oklahoma State University for their commitment to the program.
“We are convinced that they will do all they can to make this program a grand success,” he said. |
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