Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, University of Dhaka

Tourism has become one of the prime choices of the day with increasing demand. Bangladesh, being treated as a cheap labor producing country, can avail this opportunity if the people can be successfully converted into skilled manpower for this sector. Envisaging this potential, to craft the young graduates for both domestic and global markets the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management was established in the Faculty of Business Studies in the University of Dhaka.

Tourism had long been treated only as a spirited source of mental revivification but the proliferation of service industry in the ever changing global business world unveiled a new avenue of academic involvement in it resulting organized and systematic ways of exploring the mother nature with care for the nature and society, and of course lucrative high payoff jobs around the world. To be a part of that academic involvement in tourism, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management under the University of Dhaka was established in 2007 to contribute through crafting academic excellence and to disseminate that excellence through the graduates of this department with the knowledge, skill, and innovation that earlier were expensive to achieve as learners had to go abroad to study.

The department started its journey on 8th November 2007. At the inception Professor Dr. Ashraful Islam Chowdhury was the chairman and then Professor Dr. Afzal Hossain took charge of this department. Later, Professor Dr. Mubina Khondkar, a professor of the Department of Marketing, was appointed as the chairperson of this department.At Present Professor Dr. Mujib Uddin from Accounting & Information System was appointed as the Chairman of The Department. The department started its academic activities with Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and regular Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. The 1st batch BBA students of this department are the 14th batch of the faculty. In the 1st batch regular MBA program 35 graduates from other departments enrolled. Later in 2008 Evening MBA program was introduced that drawn special attention of the present and prospective employees serving in tourism industry.

Students have to take part in the admission test organized by the faculty to enroll in BBA and Evening MBA program. Like other departments of the faculty, it follows semester system. In the four year BBA program students need to compete eight semesters and in the regular MBA program they need to complete two semesters in a year. Each year two batches enroll in the Evening MBA program and yearly three semesters are offered. Along with the momentum of these programs students are encouraged to enroll in Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) programs to undertake research in this promising field. The aim of all these programs was not only to create skilled professionals but also to encourage academicians to further nurture relevant fields of tourism and hospitality.

Students here do not just study in classrooms rather get involved in co-curricular activities. Students of this department enthusiastically participate in different co-curricular activities like study tour, cultural programs, celebration of religious events, picnics, publication of non-formal wall magazine, sports competitions etc. Along with these, they also participate in some non-conventional co-curricular activities like brainstorming sessions, experience sharing by the concerned government officials and corporate personnel from esteemed organizations, and social development programs such as Mission “Clean Dhaka” program. Moreover, they also appear as an integral part of any tourism related event in the country, for instance they participated in the month long tourism fair (February 2010) and World Tourism Day celebration (September 2010). In April 2011, students participated in cultural program and discussion sessions organized by the department. Department students always participated in various activities.

Department expects that these degree programs will provide sound intellectual, entrepreneurial and practical skills in the field of tourism and hospitality. The business and management skills to be acquired by the students of this department will be highly relevant and desirable across a wide range of other service sector industries. Aiming at capacity building in the field of tourism and hospitality, the department has always been devoting all its endeavors to craft skilled human resource and future think-tanks, and welcomes suggestions that may strengthen our motivations.

Thank you for your interest in our department.
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