Teaching hotel
CUHK project finally underway
By Sandy Wong
Courtesy of Prof. Lee Kam Hon Model of the teaching hotel at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
KCR passengers on trains pulling in and out of the University Station in recent days might have
seen a new construction site taking shape beside Tolo Highway.
This is the inception of a teaching hotel for students from the School of Hotel Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The University hopes the teaching hotel will give students hands-on experience in the hospitality industry.
It is expected that the hotel will be finished by 2005.
It will be a four-star international hotel overlooking Tolo Harbour.
There will be a 6-storey school block and a 24-storey hotel block on a 2-storey podium.
The school block will become the home of the School of Hotel Management after its completion. The hotel block will include 600 rooms.
What makes the teaching hotel special and attractive is that it is located near the Science Park, Phase I of which is nearing completion, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
It will be a convenient place to hold academic conferences and for international scholars to stay.
The services of the teaching hotel will be the same as those of any other hotel in Hong Kong, and so will the prices.
The only difference is that this hotel will provide ease of contact with academics and more opportunities to practice innovative policies.
Prof. Lee Kam Hon, director of the School of Hotel Management, said, "We want to be the best hotel management school in the world.
"Having a teaching hotel is essential for teaching hotel management and thus we decided to build one for our students."
The government showed its support by allowing different commercial companies to join the project.
New World Development Company Limited is working with the University to build the hotel.
It also will be responsible for the management of the teaching hotel.
However, the property rights are in the hands of the University.
"Our teaching hotel serves two purposes: business and education. However the priority will always be on the latter," said Prof. Lee.
As theory and practice are of equal importance for commercial education, having a teaching hotel can help hotel management students practice what they have learnt in a convenient way.
Prof. Lee said, "This hotel is experimental in nature. It will allow us to try some new policies in managing a hotel and students can learn through the working process."
That means students can apply business theories in real life situations.
Prof. Ray Pine of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University said that hotel management students can benefit a great deal if they can get access to functional information on subjects such as marketing, human resources policies and procedures.
"And they can observe what the managers are doing and how the operation works," Prof. Pine said.
Miss Tse Win See, human resource manager at Royal Park Hotel in Sha Tin, said that the coming of a teaching hotel could help the hotel industry in training needed personnel.
"The hotel industry now is lacking of middle-level management personnel like assistant managers. Thus the teaching hotel can help provide more well-prepared students to fill in the vacancies,” she said.
Students from the School of Hotel Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong also support the coming of a teaching hotel.
Miss Kwan Po Chi, a Year 2 hotel management student, said students will have more opportunities to learn basic skills of hotel management in the teaching hotel.
She said, "When we have internships in some hotels, the employers expect us to know some fundamental techniques already. However, this is not the case, as most of us have not had any practice before.
"Therefore, having a teaching hotel for us to practice can solve this problem and raise our competitiveness.
"In the teaching hotel, the patience and endurance of the manager will be higher and hence students will be more willing to try and learn," added Miss Kwan.
Mr. Ng Yuen Chun, also a Year 2 hotel management student, said he hopes that the teaching hotel will provide every student with equal opportunities to work in every department of the hotel.
"In addition, I want the school to invite more professionals from the hotel field to work inside the teaching hotel," said Mr. Ng.
"Their experiences are very valuable. We can learn a lot of from them," said he.
Nevertheless, students also worry about the image of the hotel.
"Tourists or customers may think that our teaching hotel is not up to standard," said Miss Kwan.
However, Prof. Lee is optimistic about this.
"As long as the manager of the teaching hotel has the enthusiasm to nourish people of ability in the hotel industry, together with well management, we can achieve success," said Prof. Lee.
Restaurant with more than food
and services
By Eldom Chim
Eldon Chim The Millenium gives students an experience in catering.
Well before the inception of the teaching hotel at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, a restaurant built on similar principles was already running at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Formerly known as the Polytop Restaurant, Millenium is a training restaurant established by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Miss Alice To, manager of the restaurant, described it as a "laboratory".Students have the chance to perform in different fields of work like executive chef, captain or waiters and so. Students are given a free hand at everything from the design of the menu and interior decor to the serving technique.
Besides, there are full-time technicians, chefs, and back office and cleaning staff to manage the merchandising, auditing and reservations.
Millenium runs as a licensed club to serve mainly its members, including students, alumni and people in the industry.
The main reason for the membership scheme is that customers there are different: They are important teaching aids in the "laboratory".
They are encouraged to give comments about the food and services.
Miss Akie Tang, a Year 1 student in the higher diploma programme in Hotel and Tourism Management, said she found Millenium useful in helping her to understand catering operations.
