Undergraduate hospitality degree programs in Australia: Three decades of evolution

While hospitality education can be considered a relatively new academic pursuit, hospitality degree programs have grown and matured at a very rapid pace (Williams, 2005a, 2005b). Through a review of the evolution of The University of Queensland hospitality management program this paper analyses the underlying reasons for hospitality program changes in Australia, and relates these changes to the broader context of higher education evolution, hospitality industry development, and student expectations. Overall the growth of the Australian programs has followed the natural growth curve, with a very slow beginning in the mid 1970s, followed by accelerating growth in the 1980s, massive growth in the 1990s, and saturation and maturing in the present decade. 'The combination of rapid growth and the continually evolving nature of the industry resulted in hospitality and tourism programs that differed widely in their philosophies and approaches' (Williams, 2005a p.71). The analysis of the development of The University of Queensland degree illustrates the evolution of the program philosophy from its food and catering origin to a combined tourism and business approach. In addition, there have been a number of other significant changes to the program. Internal changes included program length, course number and type, elective courses, work experience, and honours, while external changes include the number of competing institutions, and government policy. It is expected by the authors that this process of evolutionary development will continue into the future as hospitality management programs are a product of the ever changing nexus of the internal university circumstances, the state of the hospitality industry, and the needs of the students, in the context of wider social and political change.