Offered by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, the programme is research-oriented with each student being directly supervised by a faculty member.
MPhil Stream
- Complete all the graduate courses required by the Department.
- When deemed necessary by advisor/supervisor, student may be required to take other courses.
- Each MPhil student is required to give an oral presentation on his/her research progress.
- Each MPhil student is required to submit a thesis and pass the oral defence of the thesis for graduation.
PhD Stream
Pre-candidacy
- Complete all the graduate courses required by the Departments.
- When deemed necessary by advisor/supervisor, student may be required to take other courses.
- Each PhD student is required to pass a written candidacy examination within the maximum period of his/her candidacy stage for the advancement to his/her postcandidacy stage.
- Submit thesis proposal and defence.
Post-candidacy
- Each PhD student is required to submit a thesis and pass the oral defence of the thesis for graduation.
Fields of Specialization
The hospitality business is a leading growth industry in Hong Kong, which is home to several major worldwide hotel chains. As a significant number of leading property companies in Hong Kong also have business ties with the hotel industry, research activities in the areas of hospitality, tourism, real estate and finance span a wide spectrum of topics. Hospitality-related research conducted by the School of Hotel and Tourism Management falls into four main areas:
1. Real Estate and Finance
Major issues examined include the development of property valuation theories, property acquisition and financing methods, the best use of property and the development of secondary property equity and debt markets. Specific research topics concentrate on price behavior and agency issues in Real Estate Investment Trusts, asset pricing theories, the market efficiency of the property markets and strategic development by developers. Future research will look at the unique features of the Hong Kong property market, the short-term stochastic movement of hotel-related revenue and other issues related to hospitality and property.
2. Marketing and Tourism
The hospitality and travel industries are part of the growing service sector. The growth of service industries has created a demand for research into marketing approaches that increase service effectiveness given the unique characteristics of intangibility, inseparability, perishability and variability intrinsic to these industries. In research terms, the presence of a service provider also moderates practically all marketing theories on buyer-seller interaction. At the macro level, research topics include destination marketing, franchising, management contract and brand equity. Theory development emphasizes issues that are especially relevant to Hong Kong and mainland China, such as the negotiation and cross-cultural aspects of hospitality marketing.
3. Human Resources Management
The hospitality and tourism industry is labor-intensive and involves the delivery of services that are often difficult to quantify. The quality of the service delivered by an organization hinges in part upon its employees, but one of the unique characteristics of hospitality organizations is that a significant portion occupies an entry-level positions and is relatively unskilled. This gives rise to a set of unique human resource issues for researchers. Topics investigated encompass most personnel and human resource management activities, including staffing, selection, performance appraisal and compensation. Special emphasis is placed on management training and development.
4. General Hospitality Management
Research conducted in this area emphasizes issues related to value creation in hospitality firms. The School aims to develop new paradigms and models to reflect the unique attributes of the service industry built on the body of knowledge developed from research into the manufacturing industry. Current areas of investigation include environmental analysis, strategy formulation and implementation, globalization, the roles and problems of CEOs and cross-cultural management.
Please visit the Division’s homepage for more information.
In addition to the general requirements of the Graduate School, applicants are also required to submit the following documents:
- a preliminary research proposal;
- a statement of purpose;
- a copy of previous written work such as a thesis, research project report, or any published articles;
- an official hard copy of GMAT or GRE report (taken in or after January 2012).
GMAT Institution Code: R9H-0W-04
GRE Institution Code: 7488
TOEFL Institution Code: B022
Applicants should be committed to research and/or tertiary education.
Interview may be required.
1st round: 1 November 2017
2nd round: 1 December 2017
Last round: 2 January 2018 (while quota lasts)
(for PhD programmes only)
CUHK Business School,
Room 1503, Cheng Yu Tung Building,
No. 12 Chak Cheung Street,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong
