Year 3: Swiss Degree and British BA (Hons) Degree
Year 3 of the IHTTI programme seeks to equip students with the skills that will enable them to gain fast-track entry into management careers in the Hospitality Industry.
Year 3 is divided into 2 academic terms and a six week dissertation period. The dissertation provides the student with the opportunity to work independently on a project of their choice. The completion of the disse rtation enables the student to receive an Honours Degree. For their dissertation, students can choose between distance or on-campus learning. In both cases, strong support and supervision will be provided.
Swiss Higher Diploma in International Hotel & Design Management
Course Descriptions:
Brand and Product Development
This module provides students with practical knowledge of the fields linked to the luxury goods industry. The module will explore the creativity in the luxury industry, customer targeting, market segmentation and the customer profile. The aim of the module is to cultivate the student’s understanding luxury versus mass markets with reference to a wide range of brand positioning, the brand building process and the product developing process, from design to the actual product. Special emphasis will be placed on how design became a key for success.
Human Resource Management (Substitute for AH&LA Module)
This module is designed to develop an appreciation of human resource management in general and in the specific context of the hospitality industry. The module emphasises the interaction of management and employees and encourages the critical appraisal of organisational and management processes and their influence on people within the hospitality industry. It will further provide students with an appreciation of the theory and practical implementation of concepts and developments in the field of management, with particular emphasis on management within the hospitality industry.
Marketing Management for the Service Industry (AH&LA)
This module will explore the phenomenal growth of consumption on a global context and the role of marketing, and specifically promotion, in relation to this. In so doing, the module will identify links between the strategic marketing process and marketing roles within global competitive business environments. This module aims to give students knowledge of the planning process that is specifically related to service industry marketing. The module aims to develop students' market research and analytic skills related to a practical marketing planning issue, through the use of 'real world' case studies and guest lectures. The module aims to deliver a balance of service marketing planning theory, practical problem-solving case assignments and current topical issues in service marketing.
Applied Research Skills
The service economy relies on particular research methods techniques in order to cope with the intangibility of the products and an inherent customer focus. Understanding consumers' wants and needs as well as satisfaction levels is still an under-skilled and under-researched area. Graduates with research skills and the ability to investigate consumer preferences are in demand by the industry. This module aims to develop the research and reporting skills of students. The module will progress from basic skills including referencing and writing literature reviews to critically analysing a range of research methodologies used by the service sector.
Managerial Accounting (AH&LA)
The module focuses on the use of financial analysis and control techniques utilising relevant data, based on a variety of case studies. It also addresses investment in the hospitality industry, financial projections and portfolio management.
Information Systems II
This module aims to provide students with the concepts and skills associated with contemporary web design. The module addresses the essential differences between web and print as a means of communication and explores design concepts, which have been developed from the traditional world or print, demonstrating their adaptation to designs for the Internet. Students will create websites using appropriate software and will produce an on-line document ready for uploading to the Internet. This module also invites you to prepare, modify and enhance designs using CAD software as the principal platform. It provides you with an introduction to the knowledge and skills required to use appropriate computer software as an aid to design in the hospitality industry.
Facility Management & Design
The aim for this module is to enable students to explore the essential elements in the acquisition, maintenance, management quality systems and control of premises, plant and equipment used in the hospitality, leisure and luxury sectors. It is a broadly based module that covers the related understanding of maintenance, design and energy management and their application to current and future industry practice.
Interior Design
The aim of this module is to equip you with skills and competencies that are essential in writing the design brief for designing functional, aesthetic and conducive interiors with regard to their intended purpose. It will enable you to acquire an aesthetic, practical and technical appreciation of the spatial layout and design elements ranging from visual (colour, lighting, form) to the tactile (surface, shape, texture) to the auditory (sound, noise, echo). It further aims to establish an understanding of how these elements interact with each other and with people that use and respond to them within the hospitality industry.
Logistics and Supply for the Events Industry
This module will introduce the concept of logistics management within the event industry and will identify those techniques and tools available to the events manager. The fundamental building block for the event being the proposal linked to tendering and sub-contracting. The event can include construction, as well as servicing and has to be underpinned by financial planning and risk assessment. Logistics for the industry must include identification and information of the supply side and the potential for evaluation of other service providers, which is often linked to management information systems.
Retail Management Luxury Brands
This module aims to provide the students with practical knowledge in the field of designing a viable distribution scheme and building an international selective distribution. Understanding the importance of reinforcing the brand visibility through distribution and succeeding in a competitive environment. The module will explore the role of customer relation management within the luxury brand industry with special reference to customer care and customer service. Establishing the transferable skills of management in luxury brands with regards to boutique and design hotels.
Language Studies - French, German or Spanish
1.1 BA (Hons) in International Hospitality & Design Management
Course Descriptions:
HRM and Business Strategy
The strategic development of service sector organizations has been marked by recognition that superior service quality contributes significantly to competitive advantage. Further, globalization, increasing competitive pressures and changing customer demands have led to the realization that successful service organizations need to be flexible and responsive to change. This module provides a forum for the exploration of recent developments in management theory and practice, relating these to the strategic and operational perspectives of service sector encounters. Companies need to identify and examine future developments within the service sector and develop scenarios for facilitating and managing change. Assessment: Report 100%
Innovations in Design and Technology
This module is designed to extend themes developed in Technology and Hotel Design and will concentrate on the future directions, challenges and development of solutions relating to Hotel design and technology for the 21st century. It will examine a range of themes focusing on innovation in design and technology and its effects on construction process in terms of innovative uses of materials, structures, space and flows. This module will enable you to develop and extend research interests in a novel and innovative elements of hotel design with regards to space, flow and technology.
Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship
The aim of this module is to develop a knowledge of the process of entrepreneurship and the environment in which the process takes place, the
skills to enable the student to make an informed decision to develop their own ventures, or alternatively, to be more entrepreneurial within existing organisations and to determine the journey within the context of personal development.
Advanced Consumer Behaviour
The rationale underpinning this module is that strategically led businesses in the current world economy need to understand consumers’ motives, perceptions and decision making processes in order to creatively design and develop products that will be successful in the market place. Although the consumption process is covered in brief in previous modules, there is a need for advanced level analysis of consumer behaviour to enable the graduate to gain a rounded appreciation of the critical issues governing consumption and the decision making process. Assessment: 100% report
Project Management
Building and renovation projects are to be delivered to meet client expectations with respect to cost, time, and quality. Participants in the construction process are drawn from a variety of disciplines and trades. The success of any project depends on effective management of activities and co-ordination of interdisciplinary efforts. The project management approach has established itself as a formidable approach for project delivery system in view of its ability to effectively satisfy client objectives in the procurement of construction products. Some of the potential benefits of the project management approach are improved control of time, quality, cost and better management of conflicts in the construction process. The ability of a project manager to efficiently perform these functions and to effectively co-ordinate the efforts of other participants toward project objectives largely determine the efficacy of the project management approach. This module aims to provide an overview of management processes and techniques required in multidisciplinary settings to ensure a co-ordinated team approach for effective delivery of building projects.
Delivering Added Value
The hospitality, tourism and events products are complex and include a high service component. A competent manager in these industries will need to develop a holistic view of how the organisation can create value for the customer using both tangible and intangible facets that the organisation offers. Competition between hospitality organisations both nationally and internationally will be based on the integration of all the elements of the management process in a way that gives the customer an experience that satisfies and even exceeds their expectations. This module will examine the parameters of operations, which need to be managed in order to situate the organisation in a strong market position. In so doing, it will explore some challenging management issues.
Independent Study
The independent study offers students the opportunity to develop their analytical and critical skills in an extended analysis of a business topic, selected by the student and supervised by a member of the teaching team. Assessment: Proposal 10%; Dissertation 90%
OR
Integrated Project
This module forms the culmination of the hotel and design elements that the student has undertaken within the three/four years duration of the Programme. You are expected to independently apply knowledge, skills and understanding, with a focus on active and reflective practice and clear evidence of synthesis and integration of the various skills and knowledge acquired throughout the course. The module is designed to provide the student with the opportunity to develop a project that will explore all the main hotel design, technological and brand development issues raised by other modules.
