Gulf scheme
Ron Hilvert would like to make one thing clear: the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, in Dubai, is not to be called a school. "It is most definitely an academy," he declares from behind an immaculately tidy desk in his sterile office in the academy's new building.
Why is he so particular about what the project is called? To be taken seriously, is the answer.
There are several reasons for this, explains Hilvert, who will be the principal when the academy opens this September. First, it will be a place of higher education, offering degree-level courses and diplomas. Second, it is the first major hospitality training centre in the Middle East. And third, it is aninitiative from Jumeirah International, the hotel group behind the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Burj Al Arab and Emirates Towers.
Centre of expansion
Although the academy is international, placing it in Dubai puts it in the heart of a city with a rapidly growing hospitality and tourism industry. At the end of last year, there were 254 hotels with 18,638 rooms in the city. It is estimated that the latter figure will increase at an annual rate of 7% for the next five years. In terms of people, in 1999 there were a little more than three million visitors to Dubai, both business and tourist. Of these, 250,000 were from the UK. "The need for this type of academy is here," says Hilvert.
But opening an academy that Hilvert hopes will be thought of as highly as any UK university is an ambitious project. Hilvert knows this, which is why he has hired some of the hospitality world's best staff and gained accreditation from respectable sources.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai and owner of Jumeirah International, is the academy's patron, and the Ministry of Higher Education for the United Arab Emirates is in the process of giving accreditation to the academy. Perhaps most importantly, the academy has won academic backing from the prestigious hospitality school, the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland.
The connection with Lausanne lends the new academy immediate respect. And it was something of a coup for Hilvert and Gerald Lawless, managing director of Jumeirah International, who spent two years in talks with the Swiss school before its officials agreed to be associated with the new academy.
Not only is Lausanne lending its name and 100 years of prestige to the Dubai academy, but it will also audit the courses. As Dr Maurice Zufferey, Lausanne's chief executive officer, puts it: "We will execute operational audits, faculty evaluations and other quality checks, through the auspices of Lausanne Hospitality Consulting."
Hilvert, himself a graduate of the Swiss school, welcomes this move. "It's important they do this, because the students will spend two of their terms at Lausanne," he says.Zufferey says that sending the Emirates students for a spell at Lausanne will result in the "entire academy's curriculum getting a European touch".
Apart from the time spent in Switzerland, most of the BSc course, in International Hospitality Hotel Operations, will be taught in Dubai. There will be eight terms, or semesters, in total, including the two spent at Lausanne. Of the others, five will be spent at the Emirates Academy, and one on an internship at a quality hotel, restaurant, club or park.
Lessons at the academy will be taught in a modern, purpose-built building fashioned in Arabic style. There will be four lecture rooms seating 25 students each, and two 50-seat restaurants (initially, these won't be open to the public, but this will be under consideration). The lecture rooms will have some of the most up-to-date equipment, and the 131-seat conference room and the demonstration kitchens will have a video link to the Jumeirah International hotel.
All students will have their own laptops, included as part of the US$66,000 (£45,500) four-year fees. Libraries will be specially equipped so that students can plug in their computers, and they will be able to download lecturers' notes directly .
Hilvert has personally headhunted all the lecturers for the academy. None were hired through adverts, something that Hilvert, who spent 30 years as vice-president of human resources for both Hyatt and Hilton, is proud.
On the faculty so far are Ian Senior, currently head of business development and resources at Bournemouth University, who is dean of the academy, and Willi Elsener, former executive chef of London's Dorchester Hotel, who is department head of food production.
Helping Elsener in their roles as executive chefs/lecturers are Michael Kitts, executive chef of London's Butlers Wharf Chef School, who starts on 1 April, and Graham Challender, currently based at the Royal Jockey Club, Sydney, Australia, who flies in to take up his post on 26 February. Head of food and beverage is John Sutton, now head of F&B at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Lecturers in marketing and law, along with several part-time lecturers, are still to be appointed. "It's a very international faculty," says Hilvert.
The students will be as international as their lecturers. The first 50 start on 8 September, while another 50 will enrol for January 2002. Entry into the academy will be by qualifications which would get them into university in their countries of origin. In the UK, this would be five GCSEs plus a minimum of two A-levels. Suitable candidates will then be invited for a personal interview.
Hilvert says that the academy is actively recruiting the students at the moment from school systems throughout the world. There are no places saved for particular nationalities, but scholarships will eventually be offered.
Although accommodation in Dubai is not included in the fees, accommodation in Switzerland is covered. Hilvert says: "Accommodation is here for them if they want it, but we can't force somebody to live with us. It's not compulsory." But, as befits a luxury hotel group, every student's flat has its own kitchen and Internet access, and there's a clubhouse with leisure and sports facilities.
With all these plans, the Emirates Academy is set to be a school that would have any lecturer in Britain drooling with envy. Of course, this all begs the question of how much is being invested. But, while he wants to boast about the academy, Hilvert isn't keen on discussing investment. "Like any big company, we don't want to talk about those figures," he says.
What Hilvert is keen to stress is that, although the academy is part of Jumeirah International, the school will operate independently. Hilvert says: "Last year, I went to about 24 colleagues in the industry and spoke to them, and only in January we sent a personal letter to every hotel general manager in Dubai.
"One of the strengths will be in consulting to find out what others in the industry want. We are not competing with other hotels. The industry here knows we can be very helpful to them."
He adds: "At our first graduation, in four years' time, I will expect 10 to 15 companies to make presentations to the students, and Jumeirah International will be one of them. Obviously, we will have the advantage."
Looking to the future, Hilvert has one goal. "Three or four years down the line," he says, "if we are perceived to be the Lausanne of the Middle East then we will have succeeded."
For further information about the courses at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, contact: PO Box 11416, Dubai, UAE
Tel: 00 9714 3482222/3480000
Fax: 00 9714 3488999
E-mail: info@emiratesacademy.com
Website: www.emiratesacademy.com
