برازش آموزش عالی گردشگری با اهداف توسعه گردشگری کشور (مورد مطالعه: برنامه درسی رشته گردشگری در مقطع کارشناسی) (مقاله علمی وزارت علوم)
درجه علمی: نشریه علمی (وزارت علوم)
آرشیو
چکیده
هم راستایی آموزش عالی گردشگری با اهداف توسعه گردشگری کشور، یکی از ارکان پرورش نیروی انسانی آن است؛ اما مطالعه این رابطه، از نظر محققان مغفول مانده است. هدف مقاله حاضر، بررسی برازش برنامه درسی رشته گردشگری در مقطع کارشناسی با اهداف توسعه این حوزه است. با اتخاذ رویکردی کیفی، وضع مطلوب و موجود آموزش عالی گردشگری کشور مقایسه شده است. وضع مطلوب در قالب دانش و مهارت لازم برای تحقق اهداف توسعه گردشگری در اسناد بالادستی ترسیم شده است. در این راستا، اهداف توسعه گردشگری در سیزده سند احصاء و با بررسی ادبیات، دانش و مهارت لازم برای تحقق آن ها شناسایی شده است. برای وضع موجود، برنامه درسی رشته گردشگری مصوب وزارت عتف (1395) بررسی و دانش و مهارت های هدف در آن شناسایی شده است. با مقایسه برنامه درسی موجود با نمونه های بین المللی، جامعیت و به روز بودن دروس نیز بررسی شده است. با تحقق اشباع داده، پانزده برنامه درسی گردشگری در دانشگاه های برتر دنیا انتخاب شده است. تحلیل محتوای کیفی نمایشگر سه شکاف اصلی در برنامه درسی موجود است: دانش و مهارت های تصمیم گیری و مدیریت راهبردی، آگاهی های زیست محیطی و مدیریت منابع انسانی. همچنین عدم جامعیت و به روز نبودن محتوای دروس موجود در زمینه هایی مانند بازاریابی، فروش و کارآفرینی نمایشگر ارائه دانش و مهارت های سنتی است؛ بنابراین به رغم ارائه طیفی از دانش نظری و مهارت لازم، برنامه موجود از ظرفیت کافی برای تربیت نیروی انسانی برای تحقق اهداف توسعه گردشگری کشور برخوردار نبوده و بازنگری این برنامه درسی را به یکی از اولویت های اصلی در بهبود آموزش عالی گردشگری تبدیل کرده است.Conformity of Tourism Higher Education with Tourism Development Goals: Focusing on Tourism Undergraduate Program in Iran
The congruence of tourism higher education with national tourism development goals is crucial for developing skilled human resources. However, this relationship has received limited attention from researchers. This study examines the conformity of the undergraduate tourism curriculum with the country’s tourism development goals. Adopting a qualitative approach, it compares the current state of tourism higher education in Iran with its ideal state. The ideal state is defined through the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve tourism development goals, as outlined in 13 national policy documents. These documents were analyzed, and relevant competencies were identified through a literature review. To evaluate the current state, the undergraduate tourism curriculum approved by the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology (2016) was reviewed, and its target skills were identified. The curriculum's comprehensiveness and relevance were further assessed by benchmarking against 15 undergraduate tourism programs from leading universities worldwide. Qualitative content analysis revealed three significant gaps in the existing curriculum: decision-making and strategic management skills, environmental awareness, and human resource management competencies. Moreover, the curriculum lacks comprehensiveness and is outdated in critical areas such as marketing, sales, and entrepreneurship, reflecting a reliance on traditional knowledge and skills. Although the curriculum offers a foundation of theoretical knowledge and basic skills, it falls short of equipping graduates to meet the country’s tourism developmental goals. Consequently, revising the undergraduate tourism curriculum is a critical priority for enhancing tourism higher education in Iran. Keywords: Tourism, Higher Education, Tourism Development, Curriculum, Undergraduate Program 1. Introduction Tourism has, over the past few decades, emerged as a development priority for many societies, earning a prominent position among their long-term development goals. Iran is no exception to this trend, as evidenced by the increasing emphasis on the tourism industry in the country’s policy documents, particularly in recent years. A key prerequisite for achieving tourism development goals is the availability of a skilled and educated workforce equipped with up-to-date knowledge and the competencies required to operate across the various subsystems of the tourism industry. In this context, higher education plays a pivotal role in meeting the human resource needs of this sector, especially in today’s competitive environment, by enhancing students’ skills and preparing them for commercial activities in tourism. The conformity of higher education in tourism with the industry's demands and societal expectations for tourism as a public domain of societal development constitutes two fundamental pillars for advancing education in this field. On one hand, the service-oriented nature of the tourism industry necessitates a workforce that itself forms an integral part of the product. Consequently, the awareness, skills, and capabilities of tourism professionals are critical for ensuring the quality of tourism products and satisfying tourists. On the other hand, tourism’s role as a driver of socioeconomic development underscores the importance of establishing conformity between tourism development goals in macro-level planning and higher education programs in this field. A review of the literature reveals that the responsiveness of tourism higher education to industry demands has been a focal point in studies conducted both domestically and internationally. However, the second pillar—namely, the conformity of tourism higher education with the development plans of the tourism industry—has been largely overlooked by researchers. Addressing this gap, this paper aims to examine the conformity of tourism higher education with the development goals of the tourism industry within the context of Iran. Specifically, it analyzes the congruence of the undergraduate tourism curriculum with the country's tourism development goals as outlined in the country’s policy documents. This analysis seeks to assess the capacity of the curriculum to cultivate a workforce equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills to achieve these objectives. 2. Literature Review Policy documents refer to a collection of laws, strategies, and macro-level national or regional plans that provide a framework for shaping public policies, decision-making, and executive planning in various domains. Among the key policy documents related to the country's tourism sector are the country's five-year economic, social, and cultural development plans, and the National Tourism Development Strategic Document. On the other hand, tourism higher education represents the final link in the educational cycle and serves as one of the primary sources for training human resources for the industry. This is because delivering theoretical knowledge and practical skills is essential for preparing graduates to respond to the evolving needs of the tourism sector. Beyond meeting the local demands of the industry, tourism higher education also bears the responsibility of advancing tourism knowledge on an international scale and enhancing global competitiveness. Four main stages can be identified in the evolution of global tourism higher education: the Industrial Stage, emphasizing applied and professional training; the Fragmented Stage, characterized by the integration of various disciplines into tourism and the design of curricula from their respective perspectives; the Benchmark Stage, which focuses on adopting a comprehensive and multidimensional approach to tourism higher education; and finally, the Mature Stage, where tourism is defined as an independent academic discipline alongside other social sciences. The shift from curricula centered on professional training toward interdisciplinary and holistic approaches—eschewing a sectional view of tourism in favor of recognizing it as an independent academic field—can be seen as the primary trajectory in the transformation of tourism higher education. In Iran, a pivotal milestone in tourism education was the establishment of the Bachelor’s program in Tourism Management at Allameh Tabataba’i University in 1996. Following a curriculum review by the Tourism Planning Committee under the Social Sciences Group at Educational Planning of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology, a revised program titled the Bachelor’s Degree in "Tourism" was approved in 2016. This curriculum is currently being implemented in various public and private universities across the country. 3. Methodology This research employs an archival study approach, with qualitative content analysis as the primary method for analyzing textual secondary data. The study is designed in four steps. The first step, aimed at outlining the ideal state of tourism higher education, is divided into two phases. First, the policy documents of the country were defined as the research population, and thirteen documents related to tourism were identified. Then, using qualitative content analysis and conducting two cycles of coding, including open and axial coding, the tourism development goals specified in these documents were identified. In the second phase of this step, the knowledge and skills required to achieve each of these goals were examined through a review of the existing literature, and they were ultimately classified into multiple categories of knowledge and skills. In the second step, aimed at analyzing the current state, the undergraduate curriculum for tourism, approved by the Supreme Council for Educational Planning of the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology in 2016, was reviewed. Two cycles of open and axial coding were applied to identify the target categories of knowledge and skills in this curriculum. In the third step, by comparing the categories of knowledge and skills necessary for achieving the tourism development goals of the country with the targeted knowledge and skills in the undergraduate tourism curriculum, the gaps between the ideal and current states of tourism higher education at this level were identified. In the fourth step, a comparative analysis of undergraduate tourism curricula at the global level was conducted to examine the comprehensiveness and relevance of the range of theoretical knowledge and practical skills related to each category. For this purpose, the top universities in tourism and hospitality according to the QS Rankings (2024) were selected as the reserach population. The curricula of the top 100 universities in this ranking were reviewed, and finally, the undergraduate tourism curricula of the top 15 universities on this list were analyzed. Data saturation was used to determine the sample size. 4. Results The research findings show four primary goals for the development of tourism in the country's higher-level policy documents: innovation and diversification of tourism products and services, enhancing the competitiveness of tourism destinations, entrepreneurship and expansion of tourism businesses, and sustainable tourism development. A review of the literature classified the knowledge and skills required by graduates to achieve these goals into nine categories, including decision-making and strategic management, environmental awareness, tourism product/experience design, and human resource management and development. As a result of the qualitative content analysis of the objectives and syllabus topics in the existing curriculum, the targeted knowledge and skills were categorized into ten groups, including national and international intercultural awareness, tourism operations management, tourism product and experience design and development, and marketing and sales. 5. Conclusion Based on the findings of this study, a comparative framework for evaluating tourism higher education in its ideal and current states was developed. This comparison identified three educational gaps: knowledge and skills related to decision-making and strategic management, environmental awareness, and human resource management and development. The results indicate that not only are there no specific courses designed to address these critical areas of knowledge and skills, but the qualitative content analysis of the existing course syllabi also reveals a lack of focus on these essential components for achieving the tourism development goals of the country. The three identified gaps encompass knowledge and skills that are vital for realizing all four recognized goals for the tourism industry. Additionally, the findings show that the existing curriculum includes a range of essential knowledge and skills for achieving the country's tourism development goals, such as tourism business administration, operations management, and marketing and sales. However, a comparison of this curriculum with international benchmarks reveals that the courses addressing these areas lack sufficient comprehensiveness. Furthermore, the outdated content of the current courses was identified as another weakness in the shared knowledge and skill groups between the current and ideal states of tourism education. Thus, it can be concluded that the existing undergraduate tourism curriculum does not align sufficiently with the country's tourism development goals as outlined in policy documents. While this curriculum provides a range of theoretical knowledge and essential skills for advancing the industry’s development goals, the identified gaps in knowledge and skills, along with weaknesses in delivering comprehensive and up-to-date education aligned with global standards, limit its capacity to prepare competent and skilled human resources to meet these goals. This study underscores the need to revise the undergraduate tourism curriculum as a priority for improving tourism higher education. The distinct contribution of this research lies in shifting the focus from industry-level analysis to macro-level tourism management and emphasizing the education of essential knowledge and skills for achieving the country’s tourism development goals. By bridging the gap between tourism higher education and national strategic planning, this study not only highlights the competitiveness of the country’s tourism education in comparison to international curricula but also aims to align it more effectively with the defined development goals of the tourism sector.
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