Brief History of the School

History of NationalKaohsiungUniversity of Hospitality and Tourism

· Stage I: NationalKaohsiungHospitalityManagementAcademy

　　　In August 1992, the preparatory office of the school was established, and the Executive Yuan approved Dr. Lee Fu-Deng as the director to arrange relevant matters. Through three years of elaborate planning and active work, the National Kaohsiung Hospitality Management Academy, the first hospitality school in Taiwan, was finally founded on July 1, 1995.During the process of foundation, the preparatory group visited famous hospitality schools in Europe, the U.S.A., Japan, Mainland China and Hong Kong to learn about their experiences since there was no precedent in Taiwan. With the ultimate goal of establishing a sourcefor talented hospitality professionals that can meet social demands, the group combined useful experiences with the best of Chinese culture to establish the school.

　　　As it was the time when technical and vocational colleges were transforming, the academy pooled the wisdom of industrial, governmental and academic circles to take many measures relevant to the era, including Sandwich Courses, Labor Education, overseas internships& visits, etc., which drew high appraisal from various circles. As a result, every year the academy’s entrance examination attracted many young students, even college graduates and masters of graduate institutes, causing a great sensation throughout society. Meanwhile, the campus’ view is humanistic based on the concepts of “green throughout the year, blossoming in four seasons and presenting a southern scene with lotus and coconut” and “turning the campus into a sightseeing spot”. On the other side, the academy held the Teacher Acknowledgement Ceremony at the start of the semester and the Teacher Appreciation Ceremony at the end of the semester, twice a year in accordance with ancient Chinese etiquette. Furthermore, the academy adopted flexible designs involving no garbage cans, no iron grating for windows and no enclosing walls. All of these measures won universal praise.

　　　In this stage, all of the faculty and students in the academy worked hard together to achieve more and more successes, which created a high popularity for the academy in Taiwan, as well as overseas after being reported on frequently by the media. Consequently, many domestic and foreign people visited the academy regularly, such as representatives from public and private institutions and relevant industries for the purpose of vocational training, recruitment or license exam. In addition, officers of different levels and elites of various circles also visited the academy to frequently participate in educational instruction.

· Stage II: NationalKaohsiungHospitalityCollege

　　　The academy was later transformed into a technical college and added both the 2-year program and the Junior College in the 2000 academic year. In the 2002 academic year, 4-year programs was established for 8 departments and 1 division, including the Hotel Management Department, Catering Management Department, Chinese Cuisine Department, Air Service Department, Baking Management Department, Western Cuisine Department, Marketing Management Department, Travel Management Department and Hospitality Management Division. Then, the Master’s Course of Hospitality Management Graduate Institute and the 4-year and 2-year Leisure Business Management programs were established in the 2003 academic year. In the 2004 academic year, the Tourism Management Graduate Institute was founded; at the same time, the 4-year and 2-year catering, travel and air management department and the catering, travel and hotel management division for the second major program were also set up for the Junior College. In the 2006 academic year, the Catering & Cooking Division of the Five-year Junior College, which integrated catering, travel, Chinese cuisine, western cuisine and baking, became the best continuing choice for people who wanted to learn multiple cooking skills. Meanwhile, the Department of Applied Foreign Languages was also founded. In the 2008 academic year, the Graduate Institute of Taiwanese Food Culture was founded. Then, in the 2009 academic year, the Graduate Institute of Hospitality Education was established, and the original Department of Applied Foreign Languages was divided into the Department of Applied English and Department of Applied Japanese. In addition, the Master’s Program of Catering Creation & Development, the Bachelor Program of International Tourism and the Bachelor Program of International Cuisine were all established after being approved by the Ministry of Education. Until the 2009 academic year, there were a total of 4 graduate institutes, 11 departments, 1 division, 2 centers (General Knowledge Education Center and Center of Teacher Education) and 3 degree programs offered by the college, which allowed students eager to engage in hospitality education the opportunity to take advanced courses in multiple ways. registering proportion over 98% for the above institutes, departments and programs each year demonstrates that the college’s educational concepts and developmental directions meet with current trends and promote domestic hospitality education; for this reason, the college can develop vigorously.

· In regards to the development of school business, Dr. Rong Ji-Ye assumed the post of Deputy President on August 1, 2003 and then that of the second President on August 31, 2004, after being officially elected. President Rong continued to promote the college based on its original scale, established the development direction of “Taking root in Taiwan and expanding internationally”, used specialization, enterprise-style and internationalization as the school’s core principles and humanism as the foundation to make National Kaohsiung Hospitality College into a source for hospitality elites, a crucial partner for businesses and a new model of hospitality education. As for the execution strategy, President Rong actively promoted the core concepts of “Specialization, Enterprise-style and Internationalization” based on humanist care. First, the college educates students with special hospitality knowledge and skills to satisfy human resources’ demands in the hospitality industry, based on “Specialization”; second, the college implements administrative performance of the college and increases academia-industry cooperative benefits with “Enterprise-style” in order to convert teaching output into practical experience, exploit industry resources and achieve the goal of an enterprise-style operation within the college. Additionally, the college promotes international cooperation and interaction, combining local features with international style to fulfill the concept of globalization and keep development of the college synchronized with international trends, based on “Internationalization”. During the process of fulfilling all of these goals, the college expects to establish a bridge of communication, common sense and culture by providing quality information and considerate services in order to realize its development goal: “To be the hospitality university most capable of leading creation and development,” as soon as possible.

· Stage III: NationalKaohsiungUniversity of Hospitality and Tourism

　　　The brief, aforementioned development history of the school explained that at its beginning, the school had aimed at becoming a source for hospitality elites, gaining the interest of students and positive appraisal from the public and laying a substantial foundation for stable development with ground-breaking study programs, excellent teachers, practical courses and novel teaching facilities. However, as technology and knowledge, as well as the environment of hospitality education, have rapidly changed in recent years, it is believed that the school will face more severe challenges in the future. Therefore, the school set up the “Preparatory Committee for a Name Change” to implement the plan to actively change the college into a university after passing the 2007 Appraisal of Technical Colleges in 2008 and obtaining the qualification for a name change. With the aim of “promoting external competitiveness and inspiring internal organizational energy”, the name of the school was finally changed to the “National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism” (NKUHT) on August 1, 2000,with the approval of the Ministry of Education and Executive Yuan through hard work, collective wisdom and the efforts of the entire faculty and all of the students. Besides the development direction of “Taking root in Taiwan and expanding internationally”, the school has established the development idea of “More tolerant, more independent; more open, more beautiful” while implementing the original concepts of humanism, specialization, enterprise-style and internationalization for the future. The university not only aims at becoming a source for hospitality service talents, a key partner of hospitality businesses and a new model of hospitality education, but also at constructing the vision ofNKUHT: “To be the hospitality university most capable of leading creation and development”. The school eagerly looks forward to promoting the hospitality education of Taiwan internationally in order to connect with the rest of the world.

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