GMIT’s Galway International Hotel School and St Lawrence College, Canada expand their agreement to deliver International Hospitality award.

On 25th June, 2020, a second articulation agreement was signed virtually by Dr Orla Flynn, President of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) and Glenn Vollebregt, President and CEO of St. Lawrence College (SLC). 

This agreement outlines a new, joint International Hospitality course which is due to begin later this year. In 2021, students from SLC will have an opportunity to study in GMIT and GMIT students will have the same opportunity with SLC at their Kingston Campus in Ontario. 

In addition, SLC students who successfully complete their Diploma in Canada are eligible to complete their Bachelor degree in GMIT. In addition, those who successfully complete the Level 7 course will be offered a place on the BA Hons in International Hotel Management at GMIT.

All great partnerships required the dedication and expertise of great teams and this agreement is no different. A dedicated team at GMIT led by Head of Department Jacinta Dalton first visited SLC in May 2018 with Culinary Arts Lecturer Cormac Handy and Hotel Management Programme Chair Colin Gilligan. The SLC team has been led by Assistant Dean Stephen Finnagan and his colleagues Beverley Bowley and Brad Greenwood. 

Faculty from both course teams at both campuses have informed the process throughout and have played key roles in getting the development to this stage today. In addition, both organisations developed a deep understanding of each other’s Academic Framework and academic oversight was provided by Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs – Dr Michael Hannon in GMIT and Eileen De Courcy in SLC. 

Cait Noone, Head of the Galway International Hotel School (GIHS) and Vice President for International Engagement in GMIT outlined the importance of this development for the school. 

“This is the first international partnership GIHS has undertaken in Canada and I am very grateful to Don Young , former VP International Education at SLC for agreeing to develop the initial MOU and to SLC President and CEO Glenn Vollebregt for asking GMIT to consider collaborating on a hotel management award. 

Jacinta and the team in GIHS have worked diligently on this development with Stephen and colleagues in SLC and it is great to have this signing take place today.

I am also very grateful to the Higher Education Authority in Ireland who awarded GIHS an initial Government of Ireland Academic Mobility scholarship which was very important when we started this project.”

Background:

On July 6th 2017 Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and St. Lawrence College, Ontario signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to investigate new and exciting collaborative projects that would benefit staff and students. The first articulation agreement signed in 2018 with the Galway School of Design and Creative Arts agreed pathways for Canadian students to complete their Contemporary Art degree in GMIT and continue their studies with the MA in Creative Practice.

In 2018, Galway International Hotel School was awarded a Government of Ireland International Academic Mobility scholarship to support the development of a new award in International Hospitality Management. GMIT has almost fifty years’ experience in this discipline and were the first Higher Education Institute to award a hotel management degree in Ireland in 1977.