May 15, 2020
First Rate Doctorates
As an academician, a doctorate is of immense importance. For a hospitality academic, it wasn’t so for quite some time. When the 3year BHM programme was launched, there were not even degree holders who became faculty in these schools. Most of them had a Diploma from the hotel management programmes prevalent then and became teachers. Some like me had a degree in another discipline.
Later, these diploma holders were encouraged to get themselves a degree either mostly through correspondence. The favourite Distance Learning Programmes were conducted by Madurai Kamraj, Annamalai and others. Then the Diploma course holders were conferred the Degree through a tie up with Indira Gandhi Open University which continues.
At the insistence of the AICTE (the All India Council for Technical Education) which is the body incharge of the quality of education, the faculty had to get themselves at least a Post-Graduation and preferably an M.Phil or be a PhD Scholar or a Doctorate to be considered for a post of a Professor, as it strove to make it at par with the Engineering Colleges, which also came under its ambit.
As a result one sees a spurt in Doctorates being awarded and achievements being lauded in many HM colleges all over the country. In fact earlier since there were no Doctorates to guide the scholars in HM and most of them resorted to get it in other disciplines.
In my college one of the first students to get a doctorate was in Tourism and he was from the first batch. I remember him as a very average student and I have even been harsh on him in class. So, I do not know whether he was motivated by my actions, but he went on to get his Doctorate and I was one the first persons he called up to inform. He was sure that he was one of the earliest ones in the country to have got one with a background in HM. Today he is a Professor at a University in Addis Ababa and moves in high places with the Ministry of Education there.
The next one was from a later batch and was a student first, then became a colleague and specialised in Housekeeping with Jaya mentoring her. She co-authored a book with her and later became one of the first woman Doctorate with a HM background from the Indira Gandhi Open University. After a couple of stints with other universities, she currently heads the HM branch of Amity University (2020). She is grateful for the lessons she learnt with us.
The third and final student from the college who went on to get a Doctorate had done his specialisation in my subject in Food and Beverage service and has always been in touch with me regarding his career progression much after he had passed out from college. His got his Doctorate from the Panjab University in Chandigarh where he is currently the Assistant Professor.
We are proud to have students who have surpassed our achievements and gone ahead and did greater things in life, but it is with a tinge of sadness that their achievements were not celebrated with the same enthusiasm by the higher ups in college. In fact when the woman went up to the heads of the institution with the information, it was met with a smirk and an advice of its importance in hospitality and promptly put the information up on the website. The same heads are yet to get a Doctorate themselves and are asking the entire faculty to sign up for a programme with the university.
If not from my institution, Jaya and I join in celebrating your successes and are super proud of your achievements and would celebrate it from any platform.
So thank you to Dr. Thirubhuvan (1993–96), Dr. Malini Singh (1996–99) and Dr. Abhishek Ghai (2004–08) on your doctorates and the small part of that journey that you spent with us.
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