Tourism and hospitality is Kenya’s second most important industry.

One in ten Kenyans depends in some way on the tourism industry for his livelihood. The industry creates considerable wealth for Kenya. As part of its effort to be more for Kenya, Strathmore has established a new degree-granting Strathmore School of Tourism and Hospitality.

Goals

• Establish a world-class degree-granting faculty for a leading school of commerce in Kenya;
• Create a vehicle to elevate professionalism and opportunities for leadership and service in one of East Africa’s most important industries;
• Intensify efforts in Kenya to improve transparency and good governance;
• To train 800 East African management students yearly in Hospitality and Tourism Management;
• To establish an initial faculty of eight professors and instructors who will prepare, manage, and teach the course of study.

Implementation Plan

The establishment of the Strathmore School of Tourism and Hospitality is on track to fulfill its concrete plan:

• Develop master plan for school and curriculum. (By June 2005);
• Recruit and train appropriate faculty. (By December 2007);
• Inaugurate school’s first class (By February 2008).

Expected Outcomes

Once the new School is fully established, Strathmore expects to achieve:

• 200 trained indigenous tourism and hospitality professional graduates each year;
• Improved standards for Kenya’s hospitality and tourism industry;
• Increased focus on management accountability and transparency in industry and government;
• Increased linkages and partnerships between Kenya’s academy, industry, and government.

Metrics

The Strathmore School of Tourism and Hospitality will focus on evidence-based outcomes derived form Including specific measurement factors including but not necessarily limited to:

• Numbers of applicants;
• Degree of selectivity in admissions;
• Degree of student diversity by economic class, gender, ethnic group, and religious affiliation;
• Numbers of partnerships formed with industry participants;
• Number of “industrial attachments” (internships) arranged for students with tourism industry participants in Kenya;
• Number of graduates successfully placed with industry upon graduation.

The Case For Kenya

As the seventeenth poorest nation in the world, Kenya needs more wealth creation. Per capita income is around $1000. Nearly half of Kenyans survive on less than $2 per day. Kenya desperately needs business and job creation in tourism and hospitality—and trained leaders to do this.

Kenya is a stable, but fragile African democracy. After more than two decades of political oppression and economic malfeasance, Kenya successfully achieved a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government. To succeed in its ambitions, Kenya needs more trained managers in its critical industries, like tourism.

Kenya is strategic. With 30 million people (10% with HIV/AIDS), Kenya is the demographic and economic center of East Africa. Bordering Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan and due south of Iraq and Iran, Kenya lives in a dangerous neighborhood. Like America, it has been directly and brutally attacked by Al Qaeda. Kenya is on the front line of freedom. It needs trained leaders in all sectors to persevere.

The Case for Strathmore

Strathmore University has become a peerless educational pioneer in Kenya: Among its achievements:

• Kenya’s first multiracial college (1961);
• Kenya’s first accountancy school (1966);
• Leading IT school in Kenya (since 1991);
• Leader in gender equality (50% women);
• First Kenya school to receive an ISO 9001 award (2004).

Strathmore enjoys a strong reputation in its region, well known for academic excellence and managerial accountability and integrity.