OSU school of Hotel and Restaurant Administration earns top research ranking
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Oklahoma State University’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration has been named one of the top research programs in the field of hospitality research productivity by The Journal of Culinary Science & Technology. The School, which is in the College of Human Sciences, is ranked first for average faculty productivity and third for the overall weighted rank and tenured faculty productivity from 2001-2010.
“We are proud to be recognized for our faculty’s research accomplishments,” Bill Ryan, School Director and Lanphere Professor said. “This type of recognition also reflects the high caliber of scholars our students are exposed to, not only in the classroom, but as they are involved in many of these research projects with their professors.”
The rankings were compiled by a research team from the University of Arkansas and Heilbron University in Germany. The article titled, “Hospitality Author and University Productivity in the 21st Century”, analyzed scholarly contributions in eight of the most familiar and distinguished hospitality journals. The study ranked close to 5,400 articles by frequency of publications identifying the most prolific scholars publishing in hospitality journals.
Hailin Qu, Regents Professor and William E. Davis Chair, said he was particularly pleased with the ranking as it reflects the quality of the program at OSU.
“The study assessed the most productive hospitality scholars and each university’s productivity in proportion to the number of total publications, the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty and total faculty members, he said. “It established a standard for evaluating scholarship and productivity through faculty and program-level merit and OSU is leading in all the measurement categories. Only Hong Kong Polytechnic and Penn State University were ranked higher.”
The importance of scholarly publication in developing faculty and academic programs has increased in the last decade as programs strive to convey and extend knowledge.
“This is proof that HRAD is committed to achieving global excellence in hospitality and tourism education, research and outreach,” Human Sciences Dean Stephan Wilson said.
Established in 1937 at Oklahoma State University, the School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration in the College of Human Sciences has been known for seventy-five years as a program of distinction and as a world leader in hospitality education through research and innovative experiential learning.