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Govt plans India's first hospitality, tourism university

Praveen K Singh - New Delhi

In a momentous decision to promote education in hospitality and tourism, the ministry of human resource development (HRD) has proposed to establish the country's first hospitality and tourism university.

A reliable source in the ministry disclosed that the proposal is in its preliminary stage and will be ready to be tabled in the Parliament during the monsoon session.

The draft that is in possession of Express TravelWorld states, 'The new university will be established as study centres of learning all over the country, which could also be utilised to encourage, promote, to co-ordinate and to consolidate this upcoming and highly demanding discipline of hospitality and tourism academically, educationally, culturally, and economically'.

According to a few industry members, there is too much confusion in hospitality education, research and learning today. Says Dr Jagmohan Negi, an academician and advisor to FHRAI -IHM, "There are publications, books, research work and papers in other disciplines but in the field of tourism and hospitality, we find very few works of quality and standard, which could be claimed as an academic achievement. Whatever is available is staggered, isolated and unexplored which need to be consolidated and encouraged through academic unification and research work." He added that this step by the government will improve the sectors through quality education.

In the early 1960s, the government had established hotel and catering education centres in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai with the support of a few foreign governments. Today, there are around 24 IHMs in the country that are controlled by the National Council of Hotel Management & Catering Training (NCHMCT).

The ministry of tourism (MoT), which oversees these institutes, has failed to acquire the status of deemed university for them on several occasions.

With this proposed university, which will come under Central University, all the scattered institutes in the hospitality and tourism sectors will come under one roof. Other than the IHMs, there are about 250 institutes in the country for hospitality and tourism education.