Study programme

Introduction days (4 days)

First-year students start with Boostcamp before the courses begin. During these introduction days, you will receive a boost in 'the world of hospitality'. The varied programme has been carefully selected. The goal is to help you find your way and to make you feel welcome in our campus community.

Module 1: Professional hospitality (10 weeks)

In this block of the bachelor programme Hotel Management, you will learn the basic elements of the business side of the hotel industry during a period of 10 weeks. The focus is on  financial management and process management. The block consists of theoretical lessons and practical services at Rooms Division (Front Office and Housekeeping) in our Teaching Hotel and school restaurant, Refresh.

Courses:

• Hotel Business
• Financial management
• Human Resource management
• Management skills
• Foreign language: French, German, Spanish or Dutch as a foreign language

Module 2: Gastronomic hospitality (10 weeks)

In the following 10 weeks, the emphasis will be on 'Connecting Gastronomy'. In the theoretical lessons, you learn what gastronomy and hospitality entails. In addition, we teach you the basic knowledge of food service, goods, wines and beer. You apply that knowledge in the restaurant of the Teaching Hotel, where you work in the service as well as in the kitchen.

Courses:

• Theory about taste and tasting
• Wine knowledge
• Food Safety
• Commodity knowledge
• Management skills
• Foreign language: French, German, Spanish or Dutch as a foreign language

Module 3: Innovative hospitality (10 weeks)

The third block of the bachelor programme Hotel Management, we challenge you to put theory into practice, with an emphasis on 'Innovative Entrepreneurship'. Furthermore, you continue to develop your knowledge in the field of financial management.

In this study block you, together with a group of other students, will organize an event for external guests. This event must be sustainable and innovative. You will use your knowledge in the field of hospitality and gastronomy. Of course, you will receive support from our teachers and coaches. To prepare you for the event, we have helpful workshops to put you on the right track.

Courses:

• Financial management
• Imagineering
• Marketing
• Theory about taste and tasting, beverage & cost control
• Corporate social responsibility and innovative entrepreneurship
• Management skills in combination with English
• Foreign languages: French, German, Spanish or Dutch as a foreign language

Module 4: Intercultural hospitality (10 weeks)

You will learn about 'Global Mind', in the last 10 weeks of the first year of the bachelor programme. This study prepares you for a career in the international hospitality industry. 
What norms and values are there in other countries? How is that reflected in the corporate culture? What do the United Nations Sustainable Development goals mean for the international hospitality industry? You will take the first steps in practice-oriented research. You write your first research report, based upon your intercultural research.

Courses:

• Intercultural communication
• Organizational culture in an intercultural context
• Marketing
• Law
• Research skills, including academic writing
• Management skills in combination with English
• Foreign languages: French, German, Spanish or Dutch as a foreign language

The Hotel Management School Maastricht is committed to make your time as a student as successful as possible. We invest a great deal in guidance and your personal development. This is why every student receives student counseling.

Module 5: Managing the Employee Journey (10 weeks): 

The first 10 weeks of your second year of study will be dedicated to the management of staff. This is also known as 'managing the employee journey'. As the term suggests, this is all about the journey employees go on within the organisation, from the point of their first contact with the company right up until when they leave. As their journey progresses, employees form an opinion on the company at a number of specific touchpoints. Examples of these are their job interview and their annual appraisal. If companies focus attention on the employee journey, this results in an enthusiastic, satisfied and productive workforce, which is extremely valuable, particularly in the hospitality sector.

The use of data is also becoming increasingly important in this. This is why the module will teach you how to use HR analytics to improve the way you manage the employee journey. You will also work on developing your management skills in this module, often in combination with English. This will involve you learning how to conduct in a professional way a range of interviews that are important across the employee journey.

You will take lessons in your second foreign language during this module, and start preparing for your operational internship.

Module 6: Performance Management (10 weeks):

The second 10 weeks are dedicated to designing a business plan for a hotel and managing its financial performance. The basis of writing the business plan is working on a hotel management game, in which you learn to think integrally about managing a hotel. 

You will also learn how to optimise a hotel’s financial performance. Particular areas of emphasis will be financial planning and control, forecasting and pricing strategies. In all of this, being able to interpret management information (data) and making use of new technologies is important.

In the English course, you will learn how to write a reflective text. By reflecting on your own capabilities we teach you how you can learn from your mistakes. This is important preparation for your internship, and later modules.

You will take lessons in your second foreign language and continue preparing for your operational internship.

Extra-curricular activity: HMSM Excellence Programme

The HMSM Excellence Programme is an extra-curricular activity in which ambitious students are offered an in-depth program in preparation for participation in international student challenges (like for example EMCup and the Genio Challenges). After an internal selection process, the participants start developing a hotel concept on a strategic, tactical and operational level. The programme is fully supported by the hotel industry with weekly guest lecturers from, amongst others, our alumni community.
 

Module 7 and 8: internship! (20 weeks)

In the following 20 weeks of the second year, you will do an internship abroad. During this 5-month internship, you will work in a Rooms Division or Food & Beverage department of an international hotel. 

You can do an internship in Europe, Asia or America. In consultation with Internship Office, you will determine which internship position suits you best.

During your internship, you share your experiences in the field of trends and innovations via vlogs on the online platform Curious People. You will have continuous contact with your internship supervisor. In most cases, your supervisor will come to visit the hotel to make sure that you are doing well abroad.

Module 9: Business analysis (10 weeks)

The first 10 weeks of the third year the focus will be on strategic hotel management and the development of your leadership skills. For the first time in the bachelor programme, you will act as a team of consultants for a real hotel, which you will also visit in the first week. You will analyze this hotel both internally and externally. Based on these analyses you will formulate a strategic proposition. In your leadership development you will be coached on personal and team level. 

Module 10: Business improvement (10 weeks)

In the second 10 weeks of the third year, you will develop your knowledge and skills regarding change management, innovation and research. Based on the outcomes of the previous module, you will now work on an innovative concept for your hotel. You will also explore the feasibility of your proposal for innovation by doing research. The deliverable of your work will be a ‘innovation report’. In the last weeks your will finalise your advisory report for the hotel in which your findings of module 9 and your ideas about innovation will be integrated, written down and presented to your client. In this module, there is also room for further development in your leadership skills. You will have the opportunity to do your community involvement project in module 10.

Tracks

In the first half of the third year, you will decide in which direction you want to develop further. You can specialize during the last year and a half of the study programme. This way you can distinguish yourself from others in the hospitality industry. 

You can choose from the following tracks:
•    Hotel Management
•    Foodservice
•    Horizons

With one or two minors in modules 11 and 12, your consultancy assignment and your management internship, you will pursue your chosen track.

Concerning student coaching, we are shifting the focus to career counseling. We pay a great deal of attention to the development of personal leadership.

Module 11 and 12: 2 minors or exchange or pre-master (20 weeks)

In these modules, you will follow two minors. A minor lasts 10 weeks. You will choose at least one minor that fits well with the chosen track. The other one can be totally up to you.

Minors:

• Minor Essentials in Foodservice
• Minor Gastronomic Experiences
• Minor Horizons in Hospitality
• Minor New Business Development
• Minor Strategic Revenue and Real Estate Management
• Minor Haute Hospitality
• Minor New Economies & Sustainable Transitions
• Minor Leading People and Culture in a Changing World
• Minor YPO - Young Professionals Overseas

Zuyd postgraduate minors

Together with Maastricht University we have developed a special postgraduate minor (pre-masters) of six months. You can follow this minor instead of the above-mentioned minors. If you successfully complete this programme, you can immediately be admitted to the master’s degree courses below.

• International Business
• Management of Learning
• Global Supply Chain Management and Change
• Business Intelligence and Smart Services

Exchange programme

During the third year you can participate in an international exchange programme. You are able to study at one of our partner universities in Europe (via the Erasmus Programme) or outside of Europe. A great opportunity if you wish to gain more international experience!

Exchange via the Zuyd programme Young Professionals Overseas is also possible.

Modules 13 and 14: Management Consultancy Project (20 weeks)

In the fourth year of the programme, you will demonstrate that you have acquired all competencies that fit the profile of an international hospitality manager. In the first semester, you and a group of fellow students will work out an advice assignment from an external client. You are presented with a complex management problem. You delve into the subject, formulate a research question and conduct practice-oriented research. You will process the results of your research in a realistic advisory report. The assignment is completed with a successful final delivery, including a presentation to the client.

Modules 15 and 16: internship! (20 weeks)

The last five months of the study programme are reserved for your management internship. This may be in the Netherlands or abroad, and in a hotel or other hospitality-related company, depending on your track. One of your tasks will be a specific internship assignment. The management internship is the perfect preparation for your first real job and it’s not unusual for companies to offer students a contract upon completion of the internship.

Final assessment

To complete the bachelor programme, you will give an individual presentation. During this presentation, you can show what your added value as a Young Hospitality Professional is for the professional field. After giving the presentation, you will answer questions from an internal and an external assessor. This interview is, as it were, the first job interview of your career.

The student with the best pitch wins the IHAB award (established by the International Hospitality Advisory Board of the programme). 

The HMSM Excellence Programme was founded as an extracurricular programme to the regular curriculum of the Hotel Management School Maastricht. Over the course of 20 weeks, the Programme challenges you to solve a real-life business case and to present the outcomes to an industry jury. 

Every week, a masterclass is organized and facilitated by an expert from the industry. Many alumni provide in-depth training into finance, accountancy, marketing, and business development. In addition, you are trained in several soft skills as presenting, pitching and academic writing. 

Only 5% of all eligible students are allowed to enter the Programme, after a careful selection based on both academic as personal performance. Successful completion grants you immediate access to international case competitions, allowing you to represent the school on a global scale.

Completing the HMSM Excellence Programme is an honorable achievement. The School sees this as a strong indicator for your further professional future! Read more about this unique programme.

Amphitryon is the student association for HMSM students. All students can join, and most students are members. The association plays an important role in the social life of its members. It organizes many sports, recreational and cultural activities. Amphitryon operates its own clubhouse on campus, which serves as a sitting room and get-together place. The board of the association, which changes every year, is a valued discussion partner for the management of the school. The board is elected each year by its members.

HMSM has an active Student Council. This council promotes the general and individual interests of all students at Hotel Management School Maastricht. The Student Council represents the students in a range of meetings and in the Faculty Board and Participation Council. The board changes every six months.