BY the end of this week, a team from The University of the West Indies (The UWI) will meet with their peers at Florida International University (FIU) as the two academic powerhouses assess what needs to be done to have students enrolled — by next summer— in the Gordon ‘’Butch’’ Stewart International School of Hospitality & Tourism. The new entity will offer everything from traditional courses such as food and beverage, to cutting-edge studies in areas that will transform Caribbean tourism.
“Hopefully, we can have our first cohort of students… next summer,” said The UWI’s Vice-Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles. He was speaking during Monday’s signing of an memorandum of understanding (MOU) that brought the two universities together with Sandals Resorts International (SRI), the Caribbean’s largest tourism enterprise.
“We don’t have all the answers today but we definitely are looking at the programming, what the student experience will be like, and then we work towards what the design of the facility is. Hopefully, from all the work that we’ll be doing, the design of facility then will lead to the question of what is the cost and what is the investment,” said dean of FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management Dr Michael Cheng.
Sandals has committed to constructing a physical building at The UWI’s Western Campus in Montego Bay. For now, the focus is on identifying synergies between the academic offerings of The UWI and FIU. Classes will be offered online, as needed, and Sandals properties will be the training ground, possibly in the form of internships, where hands-on skills are honed.
“Our intention here is to utilise the Sandals infrastructure, which in and of itself is a university for practical, on-the-job training,” said SRI Executive Chairman Adam Stewart, himself an FIU graduate. “So yes, there will be a physical campus; yes, there will be an open campus. But there is also going to be the campus of Sandals Resorts International and everything that it can become to facilitate practical, real life learning in a structured way.”
The new entity will complement the Sandals Corporate University which for the past 11 years has trained SRI employees. As indicated by the word ‘international’ in its name, it will welcome students from across the globe.
“The Sandals Corporate University is a vehicle for change within the Sandals corporation, directly for its 15,000 team members to continue to advance internally in the business,” explained Stewart. “This [new initiative] will be a standalone university coming together for the… world at large here in the Caribbean, to show and develop Caribbean hospitality.”
FIU President Dr Mark Rosenberg sees the venture as a game changer that will appeal to a wide cross section of students.
“Our appeal will not be just for traditional students; it will be to learners who also have to be earners at the same time. But it’ll be at the highest level. It’ll be research driven, it’ll be cutting edge, but it’ll be very hands-on so that our learners who are already on the ground can accelerate what they’re doing in a higher level,” he said.
The venture certainly appears to have all the ingredients needed for success. FIU’s Chaplain School of Hospitality and Tourism Management has been ranked within the top 10 public hospitality programmes in the United States and is among the top 35 in the world. Meanwhile The UWI, which has offered a full degree in tourism management for the last 14 years, will provide academic support from across the Caribbean. It is seen as the perfect blend between academia and the practical experience that SRI’s involvement will provide. It will, according to the FIU’s Cheng, incorporate AI, technology, data analytics and the soft skills that are vitally needed within the tourism sector.
“In life, there are sideshows; and in life there are main events. And this ladies and gentlemen is the main event,” said Stewart. “This is the world’s leading Caribbean hospitality enterprise coming together with two of the finest academic institutions on planet Earth who specialise in hospitality, who have recognised that together, we will achieve more. What we’re simply doing here is preparing the next generation for the industry that is going to be the catalyst for not only tourism, but for everything around tourism: for entertainment, for construction, for engineering, of course food and beverage, for supply chain, everything of the thousands of moving parts that create the ecosystem of Caribbean tourism that allows 30 million people a year come to our shores.”
