UDTTOMAG - BA (Hons) Tourism and Travel Management (Top-up)

The BA Tourism and Travel Management was developed to answer the tourism and travel industry demand for specialist tourism and destination managers and planners. Despite the industry’s prime position as a global revenue and employment contributor, the world’s biggest service economy suffers from insufficient investment in its workforce, especially in relation to challenges of overtourism, global competition, and climate change. Through a challenge-focused curriculum, this course attempts to address existing gaps and provide graduates with an understanding and the tools to manage tourism’s greatest challenges. Tourism sector demands a wide and complex range of skills, encompassing planning and impact management, embedding sustainability, and management of visitors, destinations, and attractions in line with responsible tourism principles.
21st century tourism landscape is rapidly changing, with new technologies, climate change and more complex motivations responsible for advancing new forms of tourism – from astrotourism and medical tourism to coolcations and bleisure. At the same time, established tourism destinations face growing challenges of overtourism, loss of authenticity, and a deprived destination image. Future tourism industry professionals need to understand the challenges ahead and be equipped with tools to manage them. In response, the course offers an intellectually stimulating and distinctive programme combining a range of tourism studies disciplines and approaches in one syllabus, incorporating sustainability, responsible tourism, strategic management, entrepreneurship, management of visitor attraction, conferences, events, and airports, and research projects to offer an all-embracing preparation to graduates.
The course utilises the advantages of its London location, with access to world-class attractions, professionals and business events, at the same time encouraging students to share, use and incorporate their own experiences from all over the world. The course engages students in contemporary challenges via practical projects, case-studies, and multiple opportunities to develop research and professional skills leading to the development of a life-long learning mindset.
Staff regularly undertake professional development and are subject to periodic reviews of teaching quality and assessment strategies. Module architecture and assessment strategies are regularly reviewed for their robustness, ensuring the course fulfils the University’s overarching strategy of maintaining a supportive educational environment. Independent learning is encouraged through classroom debate, idea exploration, and discovery-based assessments.

The principal aim of the course is to provide a rigorous academic programme that equips students with knowledge and understanding of core business and management subjects, with a particular focus on the tourism, travel and destination sector.
The course aligns with the QAA Benchmarks for Events, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism (QAA, November 2019), which include:
• Increasing understanding of concepts and characteristics of tourism as an area of academic and applied study; products, structure of, and interactions in the tourism industry; and the relationships between tourism and the communities and environments in which it takes place
• Preparing students for a career in tourism planning, business, and destination management;
• Enhancing a wide range of skills that equip graduates to become effective global citizens.
Students will gain insight into the principles and techniques that drive success in tourism destinations and business, and they will engage in both real-life and simulated business experiences. The course encourages critical reflection on ethical, social, and cultural issues, fostering a respect for diversity and preparing students to thrive in global tourism organisations.

On completion of this course, students will be able to: demonstrate confidence, resilience, ambition, and creativity, and will act as inclusive, collaborative, and socially responsible professionals in their discipline (ULO)

Thus, upon graduating with an Honours degree in Tourism and Travel Management (Top-Up), students will typically:

LO1: Have the confidence needed to take leadership decisions in challenging situations

LO2: Possess the necessary communication skills that will help them adopt a global and multicultural perspective in their professional context

LO3: Be cognisant of the effects of the social and environmental effects of their decisions and will remain active citizens of the places they live and work,

LO4: Demonstrate application of creative thinking skills to practical problems, and possess the analytical and organizational skills to translate creative ideas to operational solutions in tourism and travel industry,

LO5: Consistently demonstrate a command of subject-specific skills as well as proficiency in generic skills and attributes.

LO7: Have a perspective of management that is relevant to tourism, travel and destinations, influenced by a wide range of learning sources, and based on a proactive and independent approach to learning,

LO8: Be distinguished from the basic standard (threshold) of achievement by their enhanced capacity to develop and apply their own perspectives to their studies, to deal with uncertainty and complexity, to explore alternative solutions, to demonstrate critical evaluation, and to integrate theory and practice in a wide range of situations.

QAA Events, Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Subject Benchmark Statement (Nov 2019)
https://www.qaa.ac.uk/docs/qaa/subject-benchmark-statements/subject-benchmark-statement-events-leisure-sport-tourism.pdf?sfvrsn=c339c881_11

The assessment strategy is based on the model of progressive and inclusive curriculum, QAA Subject Benchmark Standards and Learning, Teaching and Assessment Framework, with study skills being introduced, then practiced and finally assessed in one or consecutive modules.

Assessment methods are intended as appropriate to the aims and level of the module and its desired learning outcomes. Assessments intend to assess the ability to synthesise and evaluate information and create new products. Additionally, assessments tend to employ novel forms of assessment, more advanced in digital literacy, and linked to a professional business environment (e.g. business pitch, report, podcast, consultancy, etc.). The variety of assessments allows for personalisation, with students being given a choice of the object of study.

Formative feedback and feedforward are embedded in the course at all levels, where students can obtain advice on case study choices and discuss early research findings. Modules use varied feedback mechanisms, including oral feedback in taught sessions, written feedback (e.g. comments on case study choices), feedback sessions (in-class and online via Blackboard Collaborate), written and audio feedback on the final work, and sometimes visual feedback (e.g. mind maps of feedback on draft work, e.g. dissertation). The timeline of feedback provision is in line with university policies and standards, and matching marking schemes are employed in all modules.
All assessments (apart from artefacts and written exams) are submitted online via Weblearn/Turnitin to ensure timely submission and monitoring of engagement. Online submission enables anonymous marking and guarantees equal access for all module tutors and external markers to assignments.

Work experience helps you apply what you learn, build key skills, and gain confidence in real-world settings. It also connects you with employers and makes you stand out when you graduate. Through internships, volunteering, and on-campus work opportunities, students can apply their learning in real-world contexts and build valuable skills.
The Careers team supports students to explore job role options, prepare applications, and connect with employers. Students can access job listings for internships, part-time and volunteering roles.
The Student Enterprise Team support students to consider freelancing and small business-start up opportunities during their studies. These initiatives are linked to improving the students’ employability and entrepreneurship prospects and their transferable skills.

There are no specified part-time structures for this course. Students on a part-time mode of study are required to take between 30 and 90 credits per academic year to complete the degree programme within the maximum time length allowed (2 years for a one-year course).
Programme planning is therefore agreed between the student and course team, in accordance with regulations on progression and completion.

Courses shall conform to both the framework and University Academic Regulations.

Standard University Regulations apply.

Developing reflective practice in students is built into the curriculum, and specific activities to support this are the introduction of Enhancement Weeks and Personal Development Planning (PDP), which are now an established part of the undergraduate programmes.

Enhancement Weeks are scheduled as part of teaching programmes where teaching on individual modules is suspended to enable students to engage in broader course-based activities. These include opportunities for reflective engagement with feedback, career preparation and employability development activities, conferences by and for students, and programme planning advice.

PDP is embedded in activities and assessments to encourage and emphasise reflection on learning goals and outcomes, to plan ways to address students’ learning development needs, and to capture their learning achievements. PDP on the course involves a variety of processes and formats as appropriate to the discipline (e.g., learning journals, e-portfolios, annotated sketchbooks, skills audits, reflective commentaries, graduation statements).

Generic and transferable skills are integrated into the context of the tourism and travel industry in a wide range of modules that are delivered centrally. Assessment is customised to focus on research and enterprise in sector-context, which enables the promotion of best practice, such as:
• Incorporation of a formative assessment task for modules at each level
• Publication and communication of assessment criteria from the outset of module delivery
• Provision of details on feedback, including timing and overall management at module and course levels

To prepare students for a career in tourism and travel and enhance life-long learning skills, students will get the opportunity to engage with employers through a variety of mechanisms in core modules, including curricular and co-curricular activities taking place throughout the course. During the course, students will have an opportunity to participate in a business trade fair event, which will feed into professional aspirations within the sector.

The Student Enterprise Team supports London Met students and graduates to bring ideas to life and develop skills for success in start-up, self-employment and freelancing. Through a range of events, activities and programmes, the Team can help everyone realise their entrepreneurial potential. One-to-one advice sessions and support programmes run throughout the year.

This course has helped many graduates to successfully secure positions in national destination management organisations and governmental bodies (e.g. Armenia, Sri Lanka, and London), visitor attractions, tourism consultancy, travel trade, and hospitality. Some graduates became entrepreneurs, while many successfully applied for postgraduate courses in the UK, especially in heritage, sustainability, planning, and digital marketing.

We believe that your university experience should be designed to enhance and support your professional life. We place as much emphasis on gaining skills relevant to the workplace as on learning the academic discipline you're studying. We're committed to helping you enhance your job prospects and preparing you for a rewarding and successful career.

This course is designed to offer an intellectually stimulating and distinctive learning experience that will help you build a rewarding career. Many of our graduates have gained employment in business, government and third sector tourism organisations, as managers in road, rail, sea and air transport, tour operators, destination managers and planners, and in research and consultancy.

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have one of the following:

• 240 credits from a Higher National Diploma (HND), Foundation Degree (FdA/ FdSc) or equivalent international qualification in a relevant subject
• 240 credits from years 1 and 2 of an undergraduate degree (BA/BSc) in a relevant subject at a different institution