Practicing what we preach: what can we learn from tourism research to help us teach tourism managers?

[Exract] Introduction. It has almost become a cliché to begin a discussion of tertiary education in western countries with a statement about the crises and challenges currently being faced. Some of these challenges include: • Increasingly diverse student populations, • Greater pressure on tertiary institutions to be self funding, • Increased student numbers, • Greater mobility amongst students and more competitive pressures on institutions to attract students, • Greater demands from students for better services and a quality education (Braxton et al 1996, Poole et al 1998, Stephens et al 1998). One of the most commonly discussed challenges is that of ensuring that tertiary graduates have the skills necessary to be successful citizens of the future. There is growing concern amongst students, employers and the community in general that tertiary institutions are not providing the level of educational quality that is expected or required. A survey of more than 1100 employers in Australia, for example, concluded that the five most important skills for a tertiary education graduate were creativity, independent and critical thinking skills, flexibility, problem solving and oral business communication skills (ACNeilsen, 2000). This survey also found that employers rated graduates as deficient in three of these skills, creativity, problem solving and oral business communication skills. Greenan et al (1997) report on a similar set of conclusions from the United Kingdom, while Braxton et al (1996) review literature detailing these same challenges in the United States