Hospitality is throwing up new opportunities for satisfying and rewarding careers, as today, hospitality indicates not merely hotels and restaurants in the traditional sense but includes all those businesses where taking care of the needs of people, either as individuals or in groups is a requirement, whether they are at work or at play.
The Institute for International management and Technology (IIMT) a privately funded institution of higher education located in Gurgaon falling under the national capital region aims to address this career option very holistically. It is owned and operated by RHW Management School Limited, a joint venture between Radisson Hotels Worldwide, RHW Management services limited (a subsidiary of Carlson Hospitality World wide and Unitech limited (India). A further investor in the Institute's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management is the Radisson Edwardian Group based in UK.

Its objective is to provide internationally recognized undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of study in the professional areas of hospitality and tourism management, information technology and business management.

Given the need for establishing educational and training benchmarks that are universal, IIMT has identified the Oxford Brookes University, Oxford U.K, (OBU) as its academic partner. OBU has been rated as the best new university in U.K for the last five years running (1996 to 2000) by the Times Newspaper.

IIMT has conceptualized setting up various schools focusing on individual disciplines but with a common thread running through them. The basic underlying philosophy is to leverage synergies, which exist between various disciplines so that participants can be provided professional training to fit in general management cadre in designated industry sectors. Keeping this view IIMT has envisioned the establishment of the following three schools-

· School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.
· School of Information Technology.
· School of Management.

Each of these schools will offer undergraduate and post graduate programmes of study leading to award of degrees and diploma in various disciplines. Besides, each school will promote research, consulting and executive training in its chosen areas of excellence. The schools will have their dedicated staff and other resources and will have their own academic councils to direct their academic pursuits.

The School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) was the first to take off the block, and today it offers a three-year B.Sc. (Hons) degree programme in hotel and restaurant management. It's the first programme of its kind in India and was very well received in its first year itself. SHTM also has plans to institute a post-graduate degree programme in Hospitality Management. The students would be working at Carlson Hospitality properties - Radisson in India and London for their summer training.

The second school to become operational is the School of Information Technology (SIT), established with the aim of providing quality higher education and training in the area of Information Technology, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The school is also going to focus on research and consultancy in the chosen area.

The first programme being offered by the SIT-IIMT is a four-year B.Sc. honors degree in computing which started in July 2001.

The institute provides hostel accommodation for both female and male students separately. Given that only a limited number of students can be accommodated, priority is given to those who reside outside the Greater Delhi area.

School of Hospitality and Management at Gurgaon strives to equip its students with knowledge, skills and abilities, which can enable them to look at all the aspects of hospitality businesses critically and holistically. The field of hospitality is wide open and can prove to be a happy hunting ground for those wanting their careers to take off immediately after graduation.

It is hard work, but as Prof. Venkatesh Umashankar (Dean IIMT) points out, it can also be fun, provided you are up to it.

Address:

Institute for International Management and Technolpgy,
336, Udyog Vihar Phase - IV,
Gurgaon - 122001.
Haryana.
Tel:- (0124) 6397228, 6397783,6397785
Fax:- 6397784.
www.iimtobu.ac.in
email : iimtobu@vsnl.net

Archana Dev