Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
beyond 18 of only a third of that in the rest of
Europe (Calleja, 2004).
The University of Malta runs a BA Tourism
course, which has an intake of about 100
students. The University also assists the Malta
Tourism Authority in providing courses for tour-
ism staff, particularly tour guides and other
'front line' personnel. ITIS (International Tour-
ism Institute) Malta is a branch of a Swiss
institution which provides courses in tourism man-
agement. One of the current programmes of
study (Higher Diploma in Hospitality Manage-
ment) now enables graduates to join the degree
course in tourism offered by the University of
Malta. ITIS was recently benchmarked by the
Department
seminar discussion and assignments, selected
guest speakers, selected videos and field trips. In
Hungary, placements are also becoming an
important part of tourism courses (Rátz, 1997).
Courses offered in English to cater for
student exchanges are now becoming more
common. For example, at Turistica, courses are
offered in Current Topics in Tourism (9 ECTS);
Event Management (5 ECTS); Travel Agency
Management (9 ECTS) and Marketing (8 ECTS).
It is interesting that the units offered in English
are usually those with a more international
flavour, which students could probably take in
their home institutions as well. This echoes a
fear expressed in the 1995 conference that
'Westernization' would reduce the amount of
local content in the curriculum. The insistence
of many institutions that exchange students
take similar modules to those in their home
programme in order to qualify for credits (or to
avoid missing compulsory areas of the curri-
culum) probably adds to this trend.
The introduction of distance and open
learning in most of the new member states has
been slow, often due to difficulties in adapting
to new learning methods.
of
Tourism
against
comparable
institutions in the UK and Ireland.
In the Republic of Cyprus, the Higher Hotel
Institute is the only public sector institution offer-
ing diploma courses in tourism. Bachelor and
diploma degrees are offered by the private col-
leges on the island. In total, 23 private tertiary
education institutions, colleges and institutes are
registered with the Ministry of Education and
Culture. The Frederick Institute of Technology
offers a BA Travel, Tourism & Hotel Manage-
ment course, and similar courses at other strong
colleges on the island are now beginning to
compete with the University of Cyprus, which
recently incorporated the Higher Hotel Institute.
In general, the courses found in Malta and
the Republic of Cyprus have a more vocational
focus, which is perhaps not surprising given
the relatively small size of the countries and the
importance of tourism as an economic sector.
There are also a large number of training
courses run for the industry, often in collabora-
tion between the tourist boards and educational
institutions. For example, the Cyprus Tourism
Organization is responsible for a Tourist Guides'
School which offers a one-year course leading
to the award of the Diploma of the Tourist
Guide.
Collaboration
The changing landscape of education in the
new entrants is marked by a shift towards
private sector provision and new models, parti-
cularly franchising. Many institutions in Western
Europe and the US are taking advantage of the
newly emerging educational markets in Central
and Eastern Europe to spread their educational
provision. Private institutions seem to be parti-
cularly
important in
such
developments, as
Dima (2003) notes:
The emergence of private higher education in
Central and Eastern Europe represented one of
the most spectacular changes in the educational
systems of the post-communist countries.
These institutions came into being in the
absence of a specific legal framework. After
almost twelve years from its occurrence, the
private sector reached almost 30% of the total
level of student enrolments in countries like
Romania, Poland or Estonia. The number of
private education institutions surpasses in many
countries the number of the public ones.
Educational Methodology
Educational methodologies are gradually chang-
ing to adjust to the new demands on tourism
courses. For example, in Slovenia there are new
teaching methods employed in vocational edu-
cation, such as interactive lecture and small
