Tourism Min for collaboration of national institute, US school

To provide global exposure to Indian students at economical cost, Tourism Ministry today favoured collaboration between a national hotel management institute and a top US school for hospitality education.
According to officials, Tourism Minister K Chiranjeevi directed National Council of Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT) to go ahead with its proposal of academic collaboration with Cornell School of Hotel Administration,USA.
Cornell is one of the top institutes in hotel management.
"Proposed academic collaboration will be important to the preparation of our goal e.G. Growth of tourism through guests' satisfaction. Our institutional versatility also has to grow and expand to be responsive to this new emerging reality," the Minister said.

The proposed collaboration will be carried out in two phases.
In the first phase, experts from Cornell School will study the curriculum of BSc in Hospitality and Hotel Administration, interact with various stakeholders and visit Indian training facilities before giving recommendations.

In the second phase, a faculty development programme will be taken up for various institutes under NCHMCT.
This will entail no extra cost to students of the BSc programme, but they will receive a much better education, officials said.
Under the proposed collaboration, students of NCHMCT opting for an online programme, in addition to the regular programme, as an add-on knowledge/certification may enrol for online courses by Cornell.

At present, the cost of online programme is USD 700 per course per person and each programme has six to eight courses.
After completion of programme, Cornell issues certificate of excellence to the students.