A Comparative Research On The Curriculum Systems Of Tourism Higher Education In China And Switzerland

Along with the blooming development of Chinese tourism industry, the Chinese tourism higher education has brought up tens of thousands of talented people for driving the progress of tourism industry in the past 20 years since it was founded. However, comparing with the top-ranking countries in global tourism higher education, there are still a series of deficiencies in the curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education and it has become one of the factors in restricting the further consistent and rapid development of Chinese tourism higher education. In contrast, the Swiss tourism higher education has always been the world's leading level. Its famous "Lausanne mode" has high reputation in the international hotel management education. Therefore, contrasting with the curriculum system of Swiss tourism higher education will help to consummate the current curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education and drive the development of the Chinese tourism higher education. It is noteworthy that the curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education and the curriculum system of Swiss tourism higher education represent the Discipline-centered Curriculum and the Humanity-centered Curriculum respectively. The Chinese tourism curriculum has built up a series of courses with strong knowledge correlation and close theory connection conducted by the relations of knowledge and theories. Studying such courses can make the students master the relevant knowledge systematically. Differently, the Swiss tourism curriculum pays more attention to the personal vocational needs and self-development of the learners. The courses are tightly close to the learners'practical experience and their practical requirements. By studying these courses, the students can more purposively master the professional skills that they are interested in and also the future career required. Hereby, there are many differences in the focus of curriculum establishment, the curriculum objectives, the curriculum setup, the curriculum contents, the curriculum implementation and so forth between the curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education and that of Swiss tourism higher education. The emergence, formation and development of these two different curriculum systems have their profound and complex social backgrounds—the several thousand years of difference in education concept between China and the western counties, the difference in the existing education systems between the two counties and the difference in the social culture atmosphere and socio-economic development, etc. Thus, the analysis and evaluation to the curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education can not be made by simply following the Swiss mode. It must adapt to the Chinese existing education system and the demand for talents from the actual development of tourism industry. To consummate the curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education is not to entirely deny the original curriculum system but to purposively refer to the beneficial elements from the curriculum system of Swiss tourism higher education and appropriately adjust the curriculum establishment, the curriculum objectives, the curriculum contents, the curriculum implementation and so forth for the curriculum system of Chinese tourism higher education, based on the existing national situation and the previous curriculum system. It is to accelerate the development of Chinese tourism higher education and make it contribute even more in fostering talents for Chinese tourism.