International Hospitality and Service Management (Master) course summary
The 1-year master’s programme in International Hospitality and Service Management has been designed to develop your expertise in key concepts such as service, hospitality, and customer satisfaction as well as covering areas as diverse as sustainability, entrepreneurship, globalisation and working with a multicultural team.
The programme for International Hospitality and Service Management master
As you delve deeper into the programme’s specialised subjects, you’ll gain comprehensive knowledge and practical skills essential for your future career. The combination of theory and practice means you get to enjoy a range of teaching methods, from interactive seminars to workshops, from lectures to group assignments. You’ll also get to choose your own specialism with a minor elective in which you carry out research either independently for a company or through one of our research projects.
You also have the opportunity to gain real-world experience at Notiz Hotel, a 4-star hotel affiliated to our Hotel Management School NHL Stenden. Here, you will spend four immersive weeks during the summer, putting your learning into action and gaining insights into the workings of a top-tier hospitality establishment.
Join us and unlock your potential as a future leader in hospitality management!
Setting the framework: the past
Principles of Hospitality and Service Management
Research 1
You will enhance your knowledge and understanding of hospitableness, service quality, customer satisfaction and other principles relevant to the hospitality industry and the broader service industry. Added to that, this first part of the program prepares you how to write your thesis by exploring how to define a contemporary hospitality/service management research topic. In addition, you will work on a challenge in our unique educational system Design Based Education, called Creating Service Experience.
Operationalising the framework – the present
Service Performance Improvement
Sustainable Value Creation in the Hospitality Industry
Research 2: Research Proposal
This second part of the semester aims to provide a broad introduction to the topic of performance, operations analysis and performance measurement. The leading theme is the analysis of operations. In their operations, service businesses create value for their customers.
It emphasises the important aspects of sustainable development, the intrinsic contribution of corporate social responsibility, the key role of ethics and the imperative use of stakeholder analysis in the management of hospitality organisations in the transition towards sustainability. Lastly, you will learn how to write a well-balanced and detailed research proposal.
Beyond the framework – the future
Strategic Human Resource Management
Financial Decision Making
Master Thesis
You will seek to challenge the notions of Strategic Human Resource Management in the global hospitality and service industry. Strategic Human Resource Management plans and their implementation will be examined within the context of the challenges posed to the industry.
This part of the semester presents the key principles of finance necessary to understand and implement the finance function in an organisation and carry out the financial analysis that justifies the decision-making process. In addition, you will start collecting data for your Master thesis.
Electives en Master Thesis
Electives
Master Thesis
In this phase you choose an elective module (see below). In addition, you write a master's thesis based on your research. If you want to gain extra practical experience, you can do so after completing this module in our Notiz Hotel.
You can choose between five exciting electives (subject to change and scheduling):
1. Entrepreneurship & Innovation
This elective focuses on entrepreneurship, innovative concepts and business perspectives. This module is an accelerated research-based programme. It is designed to provide you with the opportunity to gain the skills, framework, and learning experiences necessary to create business opportunities in service-orientated organisations, or new companies. You do this by developing entrepreneurial and innovative solutions.
2. Critical Events Perspectives
In this elective, you will learn what it takes to manage an event’s organisation. You will also learn how to create competitive advantages that lead to success.
3. AIHR Projects
This module focuses on a research project related to the research programmes at AIHR, the research unit of Hotel Management School Leeuwarden.
4. Elective Design Based Education projects
In this elective, you work on a project for a service organisation, conducting research that will contribute to solving an issue currently faced by the client company.
5. Sustainability - Food & Culinary Traditions
The elective and its core theme are connected to a current project led by Dr. Lucia Tomassini and Prof. Elena Cavagnaro. It looks at the role of family recipes in fostering plant-based food consumption and social inclusiveness. It aims to collect and organize plant-based family recipes from Dutch residents with different cultural backgrounds.
6. Female Leadership
The elective offers a blend of theoretical knowledge, practical skills development, and real-world insights from the industry, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of future-proof leadership in the hospitality sector. Topics include diversity, equity and inclusion, leadership styles, organizational culture, emotional intelligence, and intercultural perspectives.
Course Catalogue
Practical approach of Hospitality Management
We aim to help you put theory into practice as quickly as possible. Through our educational concept, Design-Based Education (DBE), you work in small teams of students, teachers, researchers and industry professionals. You tackle current, real-life issues developing and adapting your visions and ideas to form a solid solution.
Hostmanship
In our rapidly changing world, hostmanship is focused on the one thing that will never change; ‘Our human desire to be taken care of and to feel welcomed.’ Hereby we believe that it is an art to create meaningful encounters between guests and hosts. Within our optional Hostmanship programme you will learn the basics of our practical philosophy and we will challenge you to apply your insights in your assignments (pressure cooker style). After succesfully finishing the programme you will be awarded with a ‘certificate of completion’ from the Hostmanship Group.
Is this the degree for you?
If you're confident this degree is the one for you, then why not apply online straightaway? Or pick one of the other options to help you take the next step.
