Hospitality Education Program Student-Operated Restaurants: An Applied Analysis

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to describe and understand the role, the operations, and potential role of student-run commercial food operation in four-year hospitality education programs. Schools have a variety of curricular approaches to the study of food and beverage management and operations. The study examined six programs with food and beverage labs in the form of student-operated restaurants. Interviews were conducted with faculty from those programs, courses, and labs. Specifically, the questions focused on learning outcomes that students experience in the SOR, crucial components to enhance experiential learning, how they fit into the curriculum and the extent of involvement of faculty in the operation. The researchers performed a content analysis on the interviews resulting in the emergence of key themes and observations which held across all six subject programs. Other programs can thus benefit from understanding what these six programs had in common and considered important to achieving student experiential learning.