Starting the academic year 2023-24, students enrolling in UG and PG courses in hospitality at various institutes under the National Council for Hotel Management Catering Technology (NCHMCT) will be awarded degrees from the JNU after completion of their programmes, officials said on Thursday.
The NCHMCT, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Tourism, and the JNU, a central university, have entered into an agreement to foster academic collaboration and promote research in the tourism and hospitality sector, besides allowing recognition of the two-degree courses — BSc and MSc in HHA (Hospitality and Hotel Administration).
Gyan Bhushan, Senior Economic Advisor, Tourism Ministry and CEO, NCHMCT and JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday in the presence of Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy at an event held at the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering and Nutrition, Pusa (IHM, Pusa) in Delhi.
There are 93 institutes under the purview of the NCHMCT, and UG courses are being offered at all categories of institutes, except 12 institutes in food and craft institutes category which only offer diploma courses, said L K Ganguli, NCHMCT Dir (A&F) and Member Secretary.
“This MoU entails academic collaboration and will also foster research in the sector. Of the 93 institutes, 21 are central IHMs, and 17 of these offer PG courses. So, students of all institutes under the NCHMCT who will enrol in UG and PG degree courses in HHA from the academic year 2023-24 onwards will benefit from the MoU,” he told PTI on the sidelines of the event.
The NCHMCT was set up in 1982 by the Government of India as an autonomous body for coordinated growth and development of hospitality education in the country. It is based in Noida currently.
Earlier addressing a gathering at the event, Reddy, said, ”We will use this association (MoU) to work together and, we will give good education to students and good technology and products.
He also urged the two institutions to think of doing research on ways to promote tourism.
The JNU vice-chancellor said these two courses were cleared by the Academic Council and the Executive Council of the university, “unanimously”.
Pandit said she was “happy to have this association” with these institutes of India under the NCHMCT.
“This is India’s soft power. And, JNU is with the honourable minister, his government, our dynamic prime minister, who believes in the use of India’s soft power,” she said, adding, the JNU will also ”gain greatly” from this association.
“We already have defence institutes, high research institutes, whom we have been giving degrees, and also we have moved up the ranking, in international ranking among universities,” the university’s VC said.
She asserted that this is the “only university that has the Prime Minister’s motto of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayas’… We get the poorest of the poor to get the best education in India”.
“We hope that we work together that we will benefit from each other through this association,” Pandit said.
Why JNU is special, is also because it is among the institutions in India that have produced Nobel Prize winners, Presidency College, Chennai, in Physics — Sir C V Raman and Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, and JNU — Nobel Prize winner in Economics. No, IIT has done it, so far, she said.
Later interacting with PTI, she said this MoU will also ”entail academic research, faculty exchange and sharing of best learning and practices”.
Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh said this association will benefit both institutions.
Bhushan termed the occasion of the signing of the MoU, as a “momentous day, a landmark day in the history of the hospitality industry in the country”.
The hospitality industry is poised for a ”quantum jump” and the institutions under the NCHMCT are also growing further, he said.
“With this MoU, we will be opening a new vista in areas of research and development,” Bhushan said.
NCHMCT’s Ganguli said the annual student intake of UG (three-year-course) and two-year PG course at various institutes run under it are nearly 12,000 and 550, respectively.
Sources said efforts are underway to get similar recognition from the JNU for related BBA and MBA courses being run at IITTM (Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), Gwalior and ICI (Indian Culinary Institute). IITTM and ICI are autonomous bodies under the Ministry of Tourism. ICI with campuses at Noida and Tirupati offers BBA and MBA in Culinary Arts.
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