Course overview

The hospitality industry is global and in the UK alone it currently employs ten per cent of the working population. It involves caring for the needs and wants of people away from home and includes hotels, tourist destinations, boarding schools, the armed forces, pubs and restaurants. In order to succeed, you will need to be resourceful, flexible, well organised and above all, happy to respond to the various requirements of clients.

This popular and long-established degree course will open the door to a wide range of employment options and could also provide a valuable grounding if you have thoughts of starting or running your own business, such as a restaurant, bar or hotel.

Students wishing to develop a career in the tourism oriented sector of the hospitality industry may wish to follow our BA (Hons) Hospitality Management with Tourism pathway.

You will cover a broad range of business and management topics including economics, financial management, organisational behaviour and marketing at the Portsmouth Business School. During your course, you will develop special skills and competences in the technical and managerial areas, but you will need to start with a genuine desire to make people happy. We often find that students who want to travel are attracted to these courses as it is a truly international industry.

This course also enables you to spend your third year in a full-time, paid, hospitality-based role, providing a great opportunity for you to experience applying your skills first hand.

Course content

Year one

In the first year you will study the following units:

• Introduction to Hospitality Operations
• Hospitality Operations
• Legal and Environmental Issues in Hospitality and Tourism
• Professional Skills Development for Hospitality Managers
• Introduction to Finance Reporting for Hospitality Managers
• Understanding Markets and the Economy

Year two

The year two programme focuses on the operational management issues in the hospitality industry, including:

• Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism
• Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management for Hospitality
• Hospitality Operations Management
• Management Accounting and Business Decision Making for Hospitality and Tourism
• Revenue Management

You will also take options from a range which include:

• Licensed Trade Management
• Events Management
• Advanced Food and Beverage Studies
• Services Marketing
• Managing the Tourism Product
• a language

Travel and tourism options are available in both the second and final year. Those following these options are entitled to the award of BA (Hons) Hospitality Management with Tourism.

Work placement

This placement year is an integral part of the course, enabling you to return to your academic studies with contemporary business practice, ready to engage in debate and develop your strategic thinking. It is both a valuable experience in its own right and an important means for reflection on and development of class-based subjects.

We will try to tailor this period of placement to your own ambitions in terms of sector of the industry and geography, national and international. You will be asked to complete a self-evaluation logbook during your placement and further reports will be provided by your placement supervisor and a University lecturer. Our Placements Office will support you in maintaining and developing business contacts, advise you of vacancies and help you prepare for interviews and other selection methods.

There have been many examples of Portsmouth placement students going on to work full time for their placement employer after graduation.

Final year

The final year prepares you to move into posts in the industry or progress on to postgraduate study by studying the following:

• Strategic Management
• Strategic Marketing
• Experiential Learning and Career Development
• Business Research Project (Direct Entry Year 4)

You will also be able to study a wide range of optional units including:

• Travel and Tourism Economics
• Gastronomy
• Cross Cultural Awareness in Business
• Small Business Enterprise
• Managing Information Systems,
• Managing and Developing People in the Hospitality and Tourism Industries
• Management Accounting for Strategic Analysis and Control

Teaching and assessment

Here at Portsmouth we place a lot of emphasis on student support. At the start of each academic year you will be assigned a personal tutor, who will be available for regular meetings to discuss your progress, as well as help resolve any problems or questions that you may encounter along the way.

Teaching and learning are usually undertaken in lectures supported by smaller group seminars, workshops and tutorials. You will also undertake case study work, including 'live' case studies based in hospitality organisations. Extensive use is made of information technology and other teaching innovations. Staff research and consultancy expertise also actively contribute to the relevance of the programme.

You will also encounter a range of assessment methods. Most subjects have end-of-year examinations, although some options have coursework assessment only. However, most contain an element of both. Such work will also include some practical assignments involving the use of technical facilities. The assessed work you complete from the start of the second year onwards can count towards the class of degree you will be awarded.

Our assessment regulations give some opportunity to retake assessments and subjects should this be necessary.

Career prospects

The hospitality industry continues to grow rapidly in the UK and worldwide. Within the sector, tourism has been a particular growth area. Currently in the UK, over ten per cent of the working population are in hospitality-related employment. The job opportunities are numerous and the chance to develop a career with a global company can be appealing to those who want to broaden their horizons.

Nowadays, financial rewards in the hospitality industry are attractive and promotion can be very rapid for able and motivated managers. The industry also offers opportunities for independent spirits to start their own businesses – the sky's the limit.

Rates of employability among Portsmouth graduates are considerably above the national average. Our excellent employment record bears testimony to the quality of our courses and, most importantly, our students. Many students have also gone on to do taught or research-based courses at a higher level. There are plenty of research opportunities at Portsmouth, which you can explore when you join us.

Facilities and features

This course is taught in conjunction with Highbury College, one of the UK’s leading educators for the hospitality industry. Highbury will teach the more applied part of the course using its specialist training facilities, which include different kitchen and restaurant simulations. Highbury College opened brand new, state-of-the-art technical facilities close to the University of Portsmouth.

You will attend lectures in the purpose-built Richmond Building, where the Business School is located. It offers a computer drop-in and resource centre containing a wireless network access area, as well as printing and photocopying facilities.

The University Library is at the centre of academic life and is only a short walk away. Open from 8am until midnight every day during term-time, it provides a variety of information to help with study and research.

The Library has also invested heavily in the purchase of electronic resources. There are thousands of electronic journals and ebooks that can be accessed across campus, from home or wherever there is an internet connection.

For international students we have a dedicated team of advisors to support you as you settle into life in Portsmouth and at the University. One of the team almost certainly has direct experience of your culture and may even speak your language.

Entry requirements

View all the entry requirements for BA (Hons) Hospitality Management for the academic year 2013/14 (opens in new window).