IFT hosted on 21 June the fourth edition of its Tourism Education Student Summit, an event also known as TEd Summit – Spring 2017. During the event, 21 of the best student theses produced during the second semester of academic year 2016/17 were publicly presented. Best Paper Scholarships were awarded to 5 students from different programme cohorts represented in this event.
A total of 145 IFT students successfully completed their undergraduate theses in the second semester of academic year 2016/17. IFT is the only institution of higher education in Macao that requires all Bachelor of Science undergraduates enrolled in a daytime programme to produce an individual thesis as a graduation requirement.
The requirement was introduced in academic year 2015/16. The objective of which is to give undergraduates the chance to think independently and to develop their critical and analytical skills.
Each student has the support of a content supervisor and a language supervisor: theses are written in English. The content supervisor guides the undergraduate through the relevant conceptualisation and design of the project. The language supervisor gives advice about the written communication of the thesis, to ensure that it is accurate and clearly expressed.
“The thesis project helps students mature faster,” says IFT Professor Dr. Leonardo Dioko. He is the Director of the IFT Tourism Research Centre. Dr. Dioko, known to many as “Don”, has been involved in a number of public policy research projects undertaken by IFT and commissioned by the Macao SAR Government.
The scholar has performed the role of content supervisor for many student theses. He says it is increasingly common for IFT students to select sophisticated research topics for their individual theses, some of the topics matching the level of work typically required at postgraduate level.
Dr. Dioko says producing an individual thesis helps students to showcase the specialised knowledge they have acquired at IFT. It also highlights other skills, including perseverance, creativity and resourcefulness, as well as a student’s ability to solve real-life issues, he states.
“It shows not just [students’] ability to think about complex problems or issues, but also shows [their] personal character, which we think is very important to the community and the industry,” he says.
To date, a total of 652 IFT students have successfully completed a graduation thesis. From that tally, 113 students have received invitation to feature their work in the TEd Summit e-Proceedings, published on the IFT website. This year alone, 11 IFT students have attended international conferences held in Europe and in the United States respectively, in order to present papers based on their graduation theses. A total of 2 papers have won awards to date.
Industry recognition
Industry executives joining the latest edition of TEd Summit praised the quality of the student presentations. A faculty moderator together with a group of industry professionals comprise the TEd Summit panels for each of the five simultaneous sessions. Panel members critique the presentations and provide valuable commentary and feedback for each of the participants.
“The topics were very diverse and interesting,” says Mr. Niek Hammer, General Manager of Hotel Okura Macau, commenting on the fourth edition. It was the second time he had joined a TEd Summit panel.
“It’s a great opportunity for students to be able to present – not only in front of people from the industry but also colleagues – the studies and research they have done,” he adds. “Some of the presentations that we’ve seen were eye-openers, and are very important for Macao as a destination.”
Hotel Management Year 4 student Justina Chan was one of the students awarded a scholarship at the latest edition of TEd Summit. Her thesis sought to examine whether diversity of personnel in the workforce leads to positive outcomes in employee job satisfaction and guest satisfaction.
“The thesis took me a lot of time to finish. It certainly helped me develop my time management skills,” she says.
To collect data for her thesis, Justina interviewed several hotel guests in Macao and collected data from employees using questionnaires. She also asked several local hotels to provide her with relevant statistical information regarding their workforce. The entire process was “a challenge”, Justina says.
The graduation thesis of Open Li was based on a case study examining the reasons for job turnover among Macao hotel employees born in the 1980s and 1990s. This age group is often referred to as “Generation Y”. The work won the Tourism Business Management Year 4 student a “Best Paper Scholarship” at TEd Summit.
He conducted interviews with 9 employees from 4 hotels and concluded that reasons contributing to high turnover rates among Generation Y workers may include: organisational culture, work-related stress and management style. “I learned how to use critical thinking to complete a piece of academic research, how to collect data and how to rationally examine a problem,” he says, referring to his experience of producing a thesis.
Retail and Marketing Management Year 4 student Absinthe Gao was also awarded a “Best Paper Scholarship” at the TEd Summit. Her work focused on the varied expectations and perceptions of Retail and Marketing Management students regarding internship programmes. She concluded there was a discrepancy between student expectations and the actual internship experience, including in areas such as training opportunities and interpersonal relationships.
Absinthe says her research topic stemmed from talks with friends who had encountered problems during their respective internships. “I thought it would be great if I could find out what the problems were and give suggestions,” she says.
Absinthe adds that producing a thesis showed her the importance of critical thinking: “I received different kinds of information that I needed to analyse, to pick the most accurate ones.”
Calvin Tong – Hotel Management
Claudia Li – Tourism Event Management
Justina Chan – Hotel Management
Open Li – Tourism Business Management
