The Boston University School of Hospitality Administration is going global. SHA announced Wednesday a new partnership with the internationally renowned ESSEC Business School in Paris.
The partnership allows graduate students from SHA and ESSEC — the École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales — to complete part of their master’s degree abroad. Students from both schools will receive a graduate certificate from their program abroad in addition to their domestic master’s degree.
SHA professor Leora Lanz, chair of the Master of Management in Hospitality degree, said that before the pandemic, hospitality and tourism accounted for 10 percent of jobs around the world and is an important contributor to the global economy.
“We thought it was really important to pursue a relationship like this to help our graduate students understand the globalness of the hospitality sector,” Lanz said, “and to be able to have the opportunities to work internationally.”
Graduate students in SHA will begin their MMH degree by taking core courses at BU in the Fall before arriving in France in the Spring for their elective coursework, Lanz said. Elective courses are taught in English, and although a working knowledge of French is encouraged, it is not required.
Students will stay in Europe through the summer and into the following Fall semester as interns, said Patti Brown, the program director of the Master of Science in Hospitality Management at ESSEC. Internships are coordinated and placed through ESSEC via their vast alumni and employer network, with students having the option to intern in Paris or elsewhere in Europe.
For ESSEC students, Lanz said, the program is structured similarly. Students will arrive in Boston in the Spring to take elective courses and stay through the summer to complete their internship. ESSEC students will then return to France in the Fall to complete their graduate program domestically.
The program is expected to run as early as January 2021, Brown said.
Brown said she is eager and confident to begin the program and sees the pandemic as an opportunity for students to invest in their education.
“In any sort of economic crisis, or anything where something happens, people take refuge and take solace in going back to education,” Brown said. “I think that’s always been a saving grace.”
SHA Dean Arun Upneja said he is optimistic about the future of the program, citing the opportunities for global awareness and international experience as its driving force.
“Going to Europe, spending a semester taking classes and doing an internship gives you an exposure to a different part of the world, a different culture,” Upneja said. “It expands your horizons, expands your mind and gives you the ability to interact with a diverse set of people.”
The opportunity to participate in a program like the one between SHA and ESSEC is just one of the many ways students can advance their professional success, Brown said.
“As we continue to open ourselves up to others, we open up opportunities and we multiply our chances for success,” Brown said. “That’s what we’re here to do because our students’ success is our success.”
SHA senior Dorian Gold-Diamond was furloughed from her job at a Marriott hotel when the pandemic hit. She now plans to start her MMH degree with SHA after graduating early this December.
“I realized that my job felt really secure while it was happening, but then I kind of realized how volatile it really was,” Gold-Diamond said. “To have a master’s degree kind of puts me at a leg up comparatively to other students who are graduating.”
Gold-Diamond said the MMH program abroad is appealing, but that she worries about how it will function under the pandemic.
“It’s an exciting program and I think SHA faculty are really eager about starting it and putting it into place,” Gold-Diamond said. “But we also have to think about the safety, not only of our students that would be going to France but also French students coming here.”
