The complexities of assessments in professional hospitality education
| Published date | 07 September 2015 |
| Pages | 339-352 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-04-2015-0016 |
| Date | 07 September 2015 |
| Author | Marina Brinkman-Staneva |
| Subject Matter | Education,Curriculum, instruction & assessment,Educational evaluation/assessment |
The complexities of assessments
in professional hospitality
education
Marina Brinkman-Staneva
Academy of Hotel and Facility Management,
NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight some inadequacies of the position of lecturers’
qualications to design assessments within hospitality curricula while meeting the requirements of
international and national quality frameworks. The Framework for Qualications of the European
Higher Education Area leaves the responsibility for designing appropriate teaching and assessment
strategies in the hands of educators without fully recognizing the complexity of formulating the desired
learning outcomes. Additionally, the subject-oriented background of the majority of educators within
universities of applied sciences seems to be ignored in respect of its inuence on assessment design.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper reects on the author’s experience in designing
courses, teaching and assessment strategies at the NHTV University of Applied Sciences in The
Netherlands, as well as observations of processes at other universities of applied sciences.
Findings – The author argues for a uniform delineation of hospitality professional qualications
which integrates learning outcomes from international, national and industry proles. It is proposed
that course design should start with assessment design to achieve alignment with learning outcomes
and instructional strategies. Universities of applied sciences will have to train course designers in
advanced assessment methods and encourage all faculty to acquire appropriate didactical training in
assessing students.
Practical implications – This paper offers a view on the strategy necessary to ensuring adequate
preparation of lecturers in the areas of writing–learning outcomes and preparing assessment.
Originality/value – The value of the paper lies in the fact that it is a unique critique of pedagogy in
Dutch universities of applied sciences.
Keywords Qualications, Assessment, Learning outcomes, Educators
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction
This paper focuses on the implementation of the so-called Dublin descriptors in higher
education in The Netherlands or, more specically, universities of applied sciences,
issuing a bachelor of business administration in hotel management. Forty-seven
European countries voluntarily participate in what is known as the Bologna process,
which aims to make European higher education more transparent, compatible and
comparable (Slantcheva-Durst, 2010). In 2004, the Bologna Joint Quality Initiative
developed a set of outcomes per cycle (rst cycle – Bachelor, second cycle – Master and
third cycle – PhD) called the Dublin descriptors, describing the knowledge and the skills
students must acquire upon completion of each cycle. These outcomes – related to
The author thanks Frans Melissen and Roy Wood for the critical comments.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
Professional
hospitality
education
339
Received 16 April 2015
Revised 6 July 2015
8 July 2015
Accepted 9 July 2015
QualityAssurance in Education
Vol.23 No. 4, 2015
pp.339-352
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/QAE-04-2015-0016
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