STAFFING ------------------------

The department has academic staff strength of ten (10); three (3) MSc and M.Tech, two (2) BSc. and B. Tech, four (4) HND, one (1) Institutional Management (IM) and four (4) servicing lecturers from other departments.

Currently, three (3) are on study leave.

In addition to the above, we have a few non-teaching staff including three (3) domestic assistants, a secretary, three (3) cleaners and one (1) messenger.

PROGRAMMES/COURSES -------------

The HCIM department offers people with a range of full and part-time programmes.

• HND in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management which is three (3) years full time i.e., six (6) semesters inclusive of six months industrial placement programme.

The department has faced out the non HND programmes namely the Basic Cookery as well as the Advance Cookery with the aim of starting the part-time HND programme and to prepare towards the proposed B- Tech programme.

STUDENT ENROLMENT ----------------

Student’s enrolment in the department currently stands at one hundred and sixty-six (166); seventeen (17) males and one hundred and forty (149) females.

RESEARCH -------------------------------

The research works in progress in the department include:-

• Standardisation of Ghanaian recipes
• Ethics in the Hospitality Industry – Is it a thing of the past?
• Effects of taste sensitivity on organoleptic results in food studies.
• Problems associated with placing the HCIM graduates on the Labour Market

Student project works that are interesting and significant to the department are:-

• Development of banana products in the catering industry
• An investigation into the effectiveness of fuel wood substitute in smoking.
• Vegetarian cooking, a healthy way of eating

LINKAGES ------------------------------

Students go on industrial attachment to hospitals, hotels, restaurants, schools and canteens to obtain industrial experience. This help to foster career opportunity contacts as well as build relationship with industry leaders. They also have regular industrial visits to major hospitality concerns such as Novotel, Airways Catering Limited, Golden Tulip, etc. The department since 2003 has been in collaboration with Golden Tulip where both staff and students go on regular attachment. In addition the management of the hotel comes down to the institution to offer training to the students.

SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY ----------------

The department provides essential catering services for meetings and activities on campus. The department is often also consulted by various organizations as experts on both practical and theoretical expertise in the hospitality field.

Lecturers in the department often serve on various interviewing panels both in government and private establishments during recruitment process.

INCOME GENERATION -------------------------

The HCIM department provides Restaurant services and Accommodation for Guests from any part of the country and elsewhere as well as the Polytechnic community at the Polytechnic’s Guest House (‘A’ Poly Lodge). The Lodge also serves as practical training facility for students. The Guest house in addition has facilities for functions.

The department successfully supplies and trains different levels of caterers for the hospitality industry.

Almost all lecturers and some students of the HCIM department are members of the prestigious professional body for Hospitality (HCIM).

PLANS ----------------------------------------

Though a staff development program is ongoing, it is hoped that:

• The process speeds up so that more staff would have the opportunity to upgrade themselves to meet the requirements of tertiary education.

• More income generating activities will be encouraged to meet certain requirements of the Department, and to benefit the Polytechnic at large.

• The Guest House would be expanded and rooms increased for student to have the privileged of a having a hotel school.

• Cafeteria service which has been suspended would start in the very near future when the new auditorium is completed.

• The Bachelor of Technology in hospitality management and Food and Beverage would be mounted when the National Accreditation Board grants the accreditation.

• Certificate in Front Officer, Housekeeping and Food and Beverage service, Tour Operation and Travel Agency Practice would be offered in the future.