Master of Tourism Training: 10 years still in pilot!

Great demand

Tourism is identified as a key economic sector of Vietnam, with rapid growth rate every year, and an important contribution to the country's GDP.In 2013, Vietnam welcomed 7.57 million international visitors - reaching the target 2 years ahead of schedule.The number of domestic tourists also reached a record of 35 million. The total revenue of the whole industry reached 200 trillion VND. This is considered an impressive growth in the history of Vietnam's tourism industry.

According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, our country currently has about 1.5 million workers working in the tourism industry. It is forecasted that each year the industry needs 40,000 more workers, of which 12% need college or university degrees or higher. Currently, there are over 30 universities in Vietnam that train bachelors in tourism and related fields every year. The number of students graduating each year is about 4,000-5,000 students, meeting only 60% of the current demand for tourism human resources. After graduating from university, the need for advanced study of these students is very large.

In addition, many universities have a need to recruit lecturers with a master's degree in Tourism. Many state management agencies such as the General Department of Tourism, the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism of provinces have a need to improve the qualifications of their staff to better undertake the responsibility of state management of tourism. Many agencies and government organizations have a need for highly qualified human resources in Tourism; many businesses, hotels and travel agencies have a need to improve the qualifications of their management staff. However, up to now, there has been no facility that trains masters in Tourism. Only a few large universities such as the National Economics University, the University of Commerce... have training in tourism-related majors such as Tourism Economics, Tourism Business Administration... with a small number, about 5-10 students each year.

Pioneer in Master of Tourism training

In 2003, the Faculty of Tourism Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities was assigned by VNU to develop a pilot master's training program in Tourism, with the goal of providing high-level human resources in Tourism for the tourism industry nationwide. Up to now, the Faculty of Tourism Studies has had 10 years of training Masters in Tourism, and has trained 14 courses (10 in Hanoi, 3 in Ho Chi Minh City, 01 in Hue).

The Faculty of Tourism Studies is a prestigious and traditional training unit in Tourism in Vietnam. The Faculty's Tourism training both aims at broad and solid foundational knowledge of economics, culture, society, history, etc., and also focuses on specialized directions of Tourism science. This is a prominent advantage in the training of the Faculty, because in reality, training of postgraduates in majors related to Tourism at universities today mostly focuses on Business Administration, Economic Management, Tourism Geography, Economic Geography, Vietnam Studies, etc. The number of subjects in the Tourism major of these training programs accounts for a modest proportion.

The Faculty also has a great advantage in terms of a team of excellent, highly qualified teachers with experience in researching and teaching Tourism Studies at home and abroad. The Faculty has trained nearly 2,000 people with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees for the Vietnam Tourism industry, published more than 20 monographs and university textbooks, and more than 100 scientific articles in specialized journals. The Faculty has close cooperative relationships with many universities and tourism research institutes in countries: Toulouse University (France), Dusit Thanis (Thailand), Rikkyo University (Japan), Munich University of Applied Sciences (Germany), Missouri University (USA)... Every year, the Faculty regularly receives lecturers and volunteers from the US, France, and Canada to teach and work.

According to statistics, the Faculty of Tourism has trained 466 students, of which 185 have been awarded a Master's degree in Tourism and 37 are awaiting a degree. The Faculty's students have a wide range of jobs: teaching at universities and colleges, working at research institutes, state management agencies, enterprises and many other economic and social fields... This proves that the Faculty's postgraduate training human resources have been and are meeting the job and social needs in all aspects of the Vietnamese tourism industry.

Need an official industry code

Dr. Pham Hong Long (Deputy Head of Tourism Studies Faculty) said: “Our biggest problem at present is the training code. Although the Faculty of Tourism Studies has proven the quality of training Bachelor of Tourism Studies and Master of Tourism Studies, meeting the practical needs of society, this major is still not included in the official list of training codes of the Ministry of Education and Training. While tourism is considered a special profession in modern society and tourism training (tourism studies, tourism and hotel business administration, tourism culture, etc.) has been and is being implemented in many colleges and universities nationwide, up to now, from the perspective of state management, there is still no unified view on this major code..

Dr. Long also shared the opinion that, currently, many schools have had to make tourism a major in Vietnamese Studies or Economics, Business Administration, Geography, Environment, and Culture in a forced manner. On January 27, 2005, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 25/2005/QD-TTgOn the regulation of the List of education and training of the national education system.According to this decision, in the fields of education and training, tourism, hotels, sports and personal services (with separate code 81) and are available at all 10 levels of education and training, from Short-term Vocational Training (Code 2281), to Doctorate (Code 6281). In this code, there is a level 3 industry code 81.02 which is Hotel. That can be understood as code 81.01 is the code for Tourism. However, according to the latest document onList of Education and Training Level IV, Master's and Doctoral degreesissued with Circular No. 04/2012/TT-BGDDT dated February 15, 2012 of the Minister of Education and Training, there is no code for master's and doctoral training in Tourism.

Agreeing with the above viewpoint, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Minh Hoa (Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, former Head of the Faculty of Tourism Studies) said: InList of Education and Training Level IV, Master's and Doctoral degreesissued together with Circular No. 04/2012/TT-BGDDT dated February 15, 2012 of the Minister of Education and Training, has code 6090 for other Master's degree training majors. For Social Work, because it cannot be classified anywhere in the existing code, the Ministry has given code 60900101 for CTXH. Similarly, Labor Protection is included in code 60900103 BHLĐ. Tourism studies is not reasonable to be classified in the group of codes for Business Management or Vietnam Studies, so it can be proposed to be placed in another group, which is 60900104 or 60900102.

In addition, despite having 10 years of training experience, currently, the Master of Tourism degree granted to students still has to include the words "pilot program", which also causes many concerns for students. The delay in determining the official code for the Tourism major has significantly affected the training process and the rights of students, especially in the context that the Faculty of Tourism Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities is promoting the opening of an additional PhD program in Tourism Studies to better meet the social needs for highly qualified and high-quality human resources in the Tourism industry.