The hospitality and tourism honours degree programme: Stakeholders’ perceptions on competencies developed

Abstract

University tourism education is relatively a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe and its multi disciplinary nature poses challenges in the organization of the curriculum. Issues of imbalance, content/competencies developed, employability and the demands of various stakeholders provide a constant tension that has to be diffused through careful curriculum design and evaluation. A survey was conducted to examine the stakeholders’ perceptions on structure, relevance, adequacy and balance of the courses, quality of lecture delivery and graduate employability. The results revealed that stakeholders had moderate perceptions on competencies developed by the degree programme. The study also identified some gaps in the curriculum that need to be addressed. These gaps could be filled by developing a graduate competency framework which can be used by all stakeholders. This framework could also help to reduce misconceptions about stakeholders’ expectations and subsequently increase the chances of graduate employability.