Specialized pathways for specialized careers: introducing our new-look hospitality Master’s for 2027

In hospitality, as in other industries, the ‘seller’s market’ that was a feature of the post-pandemic employment landscape is now largely a thing of the past.

With the power shifting back in their favor, employers have become more demanding, even for relatively junior or entry-level roles. Today’s successful applicant will more often than not have been able to demonstrate a level of professional knowledge by which they can hit the ground running and contribute from Day One.

All this means specialization is back in vogue; and this is the backdrop to a significant evolution of our flagship graduate degree, which from 2027 will be named the Master’s in International Hospitality Business.

Along with its change of title, the degree will be presented to 2027 intakes with a new structure that features a Core Semester focused on essential hospitality industry knowledge followed by a choice of three specialized, career-centric semester 2 pathways, namely:

• Guest Experience & Service Design
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation
• Wellness & Longevity

To discover more about the changes, and what 2027 intakes can expect from the new-look program, The Insider sat down with the driving force behind its creation: Dean of Graduate Studies, Joseph Karam. The first question was an obvious one: why the changes?

“This evolution comes from the simple reality that hospitality careers are no longer limited to what we might call the ‘traditional’ pathway, which can be summarized as moving into an operational or management training position in a hotel and working up from there. Today, students who are interested in hospitality as a career tend to want to move into more specialized fields right from the outset; be that guest experience, entrepreneurship, wellness, luxury, or whatever,” he explains.

“At the same time, employers are telling us that they are now looking more for specialized people to fill specialized roles, rather than taking on a generalist and training them up. We’ve spoken a lot with the industry in the past year and the new structure of this Master’s is a direct response to those conversations.”

“This evolution comes from the simple reality that hospitality careers are no longer limited to what we might call the ‘traditional’ pathway, which can be summarized as moving into an operational or management training position in a hotel and working up from there. Today, students who are interested in hospitality as a career tend to want to move into more specialized fields right from the outset.”

Joseph Karam

Curate your learning journey

For Joseph, one of the key attributes of the 2027 program is flexibility. He adds that the Master’s retains its ‘Glion DNA’ in terms of the hospitality focus, but at the same time delivers clear pathways between what the student learns and what he or she aims to do professionally after graduation.

“This is why we offer the choice of three specializations. They’re the headline change, but when you look deeper into the curriculum you’ll find an offer of elective subjects, as well as industry projects and Industry Weeks that put the students directly in front of potential employers. It gives students more options to curate their learning journey according to their career ambitions,” he says.

Another benefit of this flexibility is that it minimizes the risk of obsolescence. In our insanely fast-moving world this is a serious issue for students and educators – Joseph points to the rise and fall of computer coding-related degree programs, which went from the hottest property to a virtual career dead-end in just a handful of years, thanks to the explosion of AI coding tools.

“For our typical student profile, who may be a recent graduate, career changer or career accelerator, there’s a need to develop a strong foundation of hospitality operational and leadership knowledge if they want to be recruited into that sector,” Joseph continues.

“During that process, and as they meet and work with people from the business, they will start to build a picture of where they see themselves and where they can add value. This will naturally lead them to their ideal specialization, as well as to the elective subjects which they can choose to fill specific knowledge gaps.”

As already mentioned, the specializations themselves have been carefully constructed to provide pathways to genuine roles and career paths in the target sectors. These include, but are by no means limited to:

Wellness & Longevity – Wellness Director; Wellness Resort Manager; Longevity Concept Developer; Wellness Experience Manager

Guest Experience & Service Design – Guest Experience Manager; Hotel Operations Manager; Service Design Consultant; Customer Analytics Manager

Entrepreneurship & Innovation – Founder/Co-founder; Business Development Manager; Innovation Consultant; Family Business Successor

A world-class graduate program portfolio

Given the decades-long affinity between Glion and the luxury sector, it won’t surprise you to learn that institutional luxury know-how is infused throughout the Master’s in International Hospitality Business and its specializations. The same, of course, can be said of our hugely popular luxury-focused graduate degree, The Master’s in Luxury Management & Guest Experience, which remains a key component of the program portfolio. It too has a new name for 2027 – Master’s in Luxury Experience & Brand Management – reflecting a refreshed curriculum designed to meet the industry’s evolving demands.

Also remaining integral to the 2027 portfolio is the Master’s in Real Estate, Finance and Hotel Development, which continues to be offered exclusively at our London campus. Like every Glion program, it too has undergone a full academic review to maintain relevance to what is an extremely fast-moving sector.

AI-proof education

If what a student of the Master’s in International Hospitality Business learns is changing, how they learn is also moving with the times. Joseph dubs this approach “reverse learning” and he explains how it works.

“It means the lecturers will open their courses online, complete with reading lists for the students, in the days leading up to the live classroom session. Then, when the class begins, the first hour covers that element, which the students need to have prepared for. The next two hours go much deeper inside the material, working through comparative case studies and posing problems for the students to resolve. This is where we bring them to a much higher level of mastery.

“What this ultimately leads to is that the learning process becomes more intensive. Why? Because today’s students will inevitably use AI to support their work. We must accept this reality. And so we’ve structured certain courses to include an exam in which the students have to demonstrate their own critical analysis and research faculties, with no AI support allowed.

“Last but not least, we organize group projects where we pick the groups, so students aren’t able to just slip into their friendship groups; they have to work with people who don’t think like them and who they may not even have a personal affinity for – because this is exactly what they’ll face in the real world of work.”

Big hitters on deck

If that sounds like an intensive experience, it is made so deliberately with the aim of maximizing the return on investment for students choosing the degree. That investment also buys access to some of the most important players in their respective industries, including globally respected names in areas such as longevity and research/market intelligence.

Joseph relishes these partnerships and the unique exposure they deliver for students. “In my view, this degree offers a new level of industry exposure not just for Glion but also in our sector more generally,” he adds.

“A major focus of this is the Industry Business Project that students undertake in their specialization semester. This is a real project for a real company, worked on in teams the same as if the students were employed by a consultancy. On Monday the company comes in to present their problem; on Tuesday we teach theoretical courses relating to this problem; Wednesday we have a site visit; Thursday the students work in their groups on solving the issue; and Friday they present back to the company.”

Aside from the real-world exposure this approach delivers, Joseph also sees genuine opportunities for students to impress their ‘client’ companies, thus gaining a foot in the door with regard to future employment opportunities.

“If you are being placed in front of 10 to 15 senior people from industry throughout your year of study, you have plenty of opportunities to make the kind of impression that’s going to get you hired,” he notes.

The multicultural touch

One element of Master’s study which is not changing is the incredible multicultural experience Glion students enjoy on campus. With around 100 nationalities typically studying with us at any given time, there are ample opportunities to soak up new angles and fresh perspectives on the business and geopolitical issues of the day.

“It goes without saying that the perceptions of students from China will not be the same as those coming from India, or the US, or from Europe,” says Joseph.

“They will bring different ideas and different approaches, and in a business that’s as global as hospitality these are important to appreciate. I know from my own experience in the industry that today you could be working in Switzerland but tomorrow you could be heading out to Korea or Japan or India.

“If you don’t possess this broad, multinational perspective, you are less likely to succeed.”

Elevator pitch

The Insider left Joseph with a final, crucial question: what would be his ‘elevator pitch’ to persuade a prospective 2027 student to choose the Master’s in International Hospitality Business with specialization?

“What all our Master’s degrees do is connect knowledge, industry exposure, professional confidence and career direction. So, if this is what you want your graduate education to deliver, then come to Glion. With this particular Master’s degree there’s an added layer of flexibility, a customized experience which echoes that of a boutique hotel.

“You will learn how hospitality creates value in the modern experience economy, whether that’s through experience design, new commercial ventures or wellness and longevity offerings. This will equip you with the real-world knowledge and exposure you’ll need to transform your dream into a professional reality.”