Are learning preferences of tourism management students at Universities of Technology addressed

Abstract

Graduate employment competitiveness remains a key focus area for both private/public higher education (HE) providers in South Africa. For key industries, including the tourism industry that contributed 8.6% to total GDP in 2018 and employment totalling 1.5 million jobs in the country, issues of academic performance and graduate competitiveness become critical. Global academic opinion continues to indicate that it is becoming challenging to remain competitive due to the perceived phenomenon of the disengaged (and at times disgruntled) student. This could be attributed to a misalignment of practice offering and student experience at HE institutions. Thus student and institutional practices must be interrogated, to assess the causes of students’ disengagement from their learning environment. A learning environment definition in South African education includes teaching practices, places where learning occurs, as well as student learning styles as part of the definition. In tourism studies learning occurs in the classroom, in the field and on virtual platforms where interaction across these platforms builds knowledge. This study aims to explore the preferences of the learning environment of tourism management students at selected Universities of Technology (UoT) in South Africa. A mixed methodology approach will be employed to collect data pertaining to the learning environment of tourism programmes within selected UoTs in South Africa.