The constant connection to professional practices is valued by students as shown in table below and the exemplary quotes that come with it.

“Interacting with professionals in the hospitality industry allowed me to gain firsthand insights into current trends, challenges, and opportunities. This knowledge can be crucial for staying informed and making informed strategic decisions in your career. Establishing a strong professional network can lead to mentorship, collaborations, job referrals, and potential partnerships”. Isabella Gonzales 2022

“The MBA prepared me well with versatile understanding of different business areas and made me a critical thinker as well as made sure I take initiatives to deliver results “. Urszula Pociejewska 2021

“The MBA program builds up gradually from Block 1 to 5, which allows us as students to adapt to the subjects and course material. The intensity of the program progressed from Block 2 onwards, however, the lecturers were extremely knowledgeable and guided us well through the content, which helped me to keep up to speed and on top of the workload”. Anita van Tonder 2022

In terms of a professional benchmark our lecturer Ms Andrea Weihrauch PhD, lecturer High Tech High Touch, Associate Professor Marketing & Consumer Psychology compares her experience lecturing at multiple universities and (MBA) programmes as follows:

“Having experience in (executive) teaching in five countries and different programs, I would argue that the unique characteristic of the Hotelschool The Hague MBA program lies in its ability to provide education perfectly tailored to the demands of one specific sector, namely hospitality. While the teaching content is general enough to prepare students for all kinds of career trajectories, being able to apply theoretical concepts, as well as technological/societal/economic theories and trends with a dominant sector focus provides MBA students a unique ability to take on roles in this sector.

This focus goes beyond simply using the sector as an application field but is an integral part of the program reflected in the choice of lecturers, the networks students are able to create and the core teaching curriculum. In addition, the intensity of the program being taught predominantly on-campus in small student groups who not only learn, but often also live together, allows a classroom dynamic that is distinctive to this MBA program. This, embedded in the larger offerings of the Hotelschool the Hague campus makes the program one of a kind.”

In the last couple of years, the right pace and rhythm was found and applied so that students have sufficient time to find a consultancy project, write and deliver their consultancy proposal for the organisation they will advise and deliver their consultancy report in the 2^nd week of September. The consultancy process changes improved the study journey and the feasibility of the graduation project.

Consultancy Process and Project

Emphasis on assuring a master level of research competencies

In the MBA, the ‘field problem solving’ research method of design oriented research has been implemented. That method is taught by colleagues from the HTH Research Centre. For instance, one colleague of the Research Centre is responsible for the MBA course Business Research and Consultancy, the preparatory course for the Final Consultancy Project. Research Centre professors are often approached and available for consultation on project topics and publications. MBA students are an active part of the yearly Research Centre Research Symposium where they present their project to the symposium visitors through a poster presentation (a selection of these posters will be presented during the site visit). More examples of the active cooperation between the Research Centre and the MBA may be seen in the returning Curriculum Extra activities taught by Research Centre professors; for example, the 3-workshop course on Pricing Strategy, the 3-lecture course on Future of Business and the 4-class course on City Tourism. In 2024, the Curriculum Extra course ‘The total human hospitality experience’ is also brought to the MBA students by the Research Centre.

A true moment of awareness and urgency manifested itself at the GO/NO GO moment of the 4^th cohort (September 2018) during which we received a painful confirmation that 50% of the group of students received a NO GO for their consultancy report they handed in beginning of September 2018. In that cohort there were quite a number of students from Asia who were not familiar with the way of doing research in the MBA. Therefore, especially this group received extra support to make sure that they could successfully finalise their studies. To prevent what happened in the future, a Design Oriented/Based Research (DOR) course was embedded (added) in the Business Research and Consultancy (BRC) course, as mentioned above.

In 2023 an end level check of the final consultancy project reports was performed by reviewers of THE ICE (The International Centre of Excellence in Tourism and Hospitality Education). A quote from prof. Tom Baum underpins the end level reached:

"Projects meet academic and professional standards in their conceptual, execution, analysis and delivery at the set level relative to international best practice." Regarding the objective of reaching 'feasible solutions', he stated: " There is a strong sense of client focus in most of the reports and evidence of client engagement with the project process."

Balancing the Curriculum Extra Activities

An essential component of the MBA programme that supports the effort to elevate the MBA into a (master) learning and development experience is the integration of the ‘Curriculum Extra’ activities. Since the start of the programme in 2014 an extensive number of additional real-life encounters and activities were embedded in the curriculum to constantly make the connection with current business developments, topics, trends and other disciplines. These encounters are organised on a weekly basis, leading to weekly guest lectures, company visits, field trips and around 8-10 additional courses during the academic year.

“The industry connections and guest lecturers added great value to making my choice for the final Consultancy project. We were invited to the annual convention of Choice Hotels and from that point I got to complete my thesis on the chain’s expansion and afterwards join the company as an intern.” Jaime Bargiela Martínez 2015

By doing so, the MBA added, since its start in 2014, a touch of “Bildung” to establish an even stronger connection between education, students’ personal development and societal and business challenges. The MBA aims at realising significant learning and, according to the feedback of students, is successful in doing so.

The Curriculum Extra is one of the critical success factors. In combination with a solid selection, strong mentorship and high expectations, students leaving our MBA are well equipped to shape the future of international hospitality.

“It’s incredible to think that eight years have flown by since my graduation from the MBA of Hotelschool The Hague. However, the opportunity to return to the school recently, in a different capacity through a collaboration with the MBA students and the Dutch SuperYacht Tech Campus in Amsterdam, has been truly amazing. Together with the MBA students and the course leader Mr. James Boekbinder (Hospitality Experience Design), the students did a remarkable job on their assignment.” Katarina Poljak 2014. Please see the result displayed in the video on LinkedIn page.

The Curriculum Extra is highly valued by students as can be substantiated by a score of 4.4 on a 5-point scale in a recent Alumni Survey. Students go through an intense experience that content wise is received as challenging and attractive and at the same time requires commitment and perseverance. Some even call it "life changing".