【DEAN’S VISION】
Top in Nation, Top 100 in the World in Tourism Field
Rapid changes in industry and society make the challenge of entering the workforce more difficult for graduates, so the university must assist students with grasping the trends, applying knowledge they have learned, and showing their talents. I believe that students must be equipped with competitiveness through the cultivation of soft power.
In line with the emergence of intelligent technology, many traditional jobs which emphasize fixed skills or are highly repetitive are facing a reformation; those activities which may not create more value for customers or industries will be taken up by artificial intelligence (AI), and a number of people are worried about this. Facing this transformation, I am not worried about employment and career development for School of Tourism students, because only hard-skill jobs will be replaced by AI, such as those that require repetition and regularity. The School of Tourism emphasizes cultivation of students’ soft power, including students’ attitude, communication and negotiation, and teamwork. Students may earn experience and knowledge through participation in student clubs, as well as internships in the restaurant and hotel at MCU. We allow students to assemble a business team by themselves to cultivate their practical abilities of planning, communication, negotiation, and internship through the courses. Those abilities surpass the capacity of AI.
School of Tourism students may promote their service value by learning to apply AI to take advantage of technology. In many aspects of restaurant, hotel and tourism operations, AI can not only promote service efficiency, but also service value through individualized and personal service which may closely meet customers’ needs efficiently. Currently, we are planning and implementing integrated courses as a collaboration between the schools of Tourism, Information Technology and Design, as a means of adding value to tourism through technology. As development of this system requires professional engineers, the user experience must be pleasing and clear, and the content accurate, these three Schools are combining their strengths to do their part to create a win-win-win condition for all.
In this global age, worldwide communication has been drawing us closer, and people are getting know each other. Thus, it has become more important to cultivate students’ world views and promote their global mobility. The difference between tourism and other industries is that it is inherently an international career. Therefore, the School of Tourism always emphasizes cultivating students’ international competitiveness.
MCU Department of Tourism has been established for 50 years; the long-term devotion to education has built a solid foundation for the School. Over 10 MOST research grants have been awarded to School’s faculty, and the School is ranked among the top 100 tourism schools in the world for international academic periodical publications. MCU School of Tourism graduates serving in the industry have many fine achievements. Our students have earned MOST College Student Research Awards and domestic Master’s thesis awards many times, and they also perform well in all types of professional competitions; those outcomes prove their excellence. We really appreciate that MCU continually emphasizes the development of the School of Tourism. Building on our current outcomes, our vision is to be a leader in both academic and practical fields of tourism in Taiwan.