Hospitality course in Rajindra College ‘inhospitable’ to IHM
The decision to introduce the hospitality course in Government Rajindra College here seems to have been taken without any research as a similar course has not been able to attract enough students in the neighbouring Institute of Hotel Management (IHM).
The decision to introduce the hospitality course in Government Rajindra College here seems to have been taken without any research as a similar course has not been able to attract enough students in the neighbouring Institute of Hotel Management (IHM). The IHM, affiliated to and approved by the union ministry of tourism, was established in 2009 and has never been able to fill all the seats till the end of the academic session every year since then and there are more than one reason for this.
One of the reasons being the common perception that such courses offered in hotel management institutes prepared students for placement only in hotels and restaurants, and this prospect is not considered in that much good esteem.
However, Kamal Piyush, principal ofInstitute of Hotel Management , sees a great potential in the course.
He said, “In the coming time, students with degrees in engineering will find it tough to get a job, but I am pretty sure that ones who will join hotelmanagement will get employment easily.”
He said the reason of lack of students was the remote location of the college also.
“After consultation with higher authorities, we have also decided to relax norms and offer spot admissions, based on the marks obtained in intermediate courses (plus two), so that we can attract more students within the state”, said Kamal Piyush, who remains in touch with the bigwigs of the hotel and hospitality industry to see his students get placed across all the sectors.
“I want to clarify that our students have been employed by banks, airlines and several other organisations,” he added.
But, now the introduction of the same course in the government Rajindra College is also a matter of concern for the IHM. When an official of the Rajindra college was asked about why a similar course that is being run in the Institute of Hotel Management has been introduced, he said that it is a state-sponsored university and has to cater to the demands of local students.
"There are 60 seats and only 54 students have applied till now," said Sukhdev Singh, who is looking after the admission procedure of the course.
“We have already given advertisement for two faculty members for this course.”
He also informed that the college has a separate building for this course.
However, the introduction of the hospitality course in the Rajindra College will have an adverse impact on that of the Institute of Hotel Management , which is already struggling to fill all the seats.
