Modern hospitality education emphasizes industry participation and uses initiatives such as externships, roundtable meetings and live case studies to expose students to industry leaders, their thoughts and leadership styles. Master of Management in Hospitality (MMH) students at the Cornell Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management undergo six weeks of externship – ‘on the job' work experience with hotels, consulting companies and group corporate offices, reporting directly to the senior management, who navigate them through an inter-departmental experience. “The students have made an enormous impression on our people” remarked Ignacio Gomez, Regional Vice President, Four Seasons Hotels and General Manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore. “Their clear intelligence and obviously good education combined with a ‘get up and go' attitude make for an ideal intern and eventually a great employee”.

Students often conduct real-time studies, using real data from hotels to build cases for consultancy and present those findings to senior management in the hotel with their recommendations. Deepak Ohri, Chief Executive Officer of Lebua Hotels & Resorts in Thailand , speaking about an MMH student's case study and recommendations, commented that “we made a million dollar decision based on that”. Lebua has just hired the MMH graduate who interned with them.

Students are personally introduced, very early in the course, to industry leaders in Operations Management, Revenue Management, Human Resource, Sales and Marketing and Real Estate Finance and Investment through a series of roundtables and career-track advisory board meetings, at which they hear discussions from experts and senior professionals on matters critical to the industry. They have the opportunity to socially interact with the leaders over lunch and coffee breaks, building network connections that will stand them in good stead throughout their careers. Jasmine Choo, a new intake for the 2009 MMH class said “The MMH program is life changing. We have tremendous exposure to industry leaders and learn firsthand what is happening in the industry – it is an experience that would otherwise have taken years to achieve, by working our way up through an organization. It is wonderful to experience all this in our first few weeks of the course, I feel like part of a team already”.

The MMH students also undergo the Master Class - an intense two or three day site visit at spectacular locations abroad, where they meet senior executives of various hotel groups and conduct ‘live' case studies, understanding staff performance and operations procedures and make recommendations for improved procedures. Last year, the students went to Hong Kong and Macau to study the casino and entertainment industry.

Recent graduates of the MMH course are equally as enthusiastic. Shirley Tee opined that “The program is intense, rich with knowledge and team work with great exposure to the industry”.

To learn more about the MMH Course visit .

About Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management

The Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management offers Asia’s first graduate hospitality management program. Enrolled students spend equal periods of time at Nanyang Technological University’s campus in Singapore and at Cornell University’s campus in Ithaca, New York. The collaboration unites Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, the world’s leading hospitality management school, with NTU’s Nanyang Business School, one of the leading business schools in Asia, in what is the first joint degree program for both institutions.

The program is aimed at cultivating Asia-centric leadership and bringing world-class standards to the fast-growing Asian hospitality industry. The program is accredited by the International Association for Management Education (formerly the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business) and by EQUIS, the accreditation body of the European Foundation for Management Development. The Cornell-NTU collaboration is supported by the Singapore Tourism Board and the Economic Development Board, with International Hotel Management School Pte Ltd playing a lead industry role.

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Illka Gobius
+65 91058268
CNI