BACKGROUND

The Association for Tourism in Higher Education (formerly the National Liaison Group for Tourism in Higher Education (NLG) was originally established in 1993. The background to its formation was a direct response to a government decision to end the role of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA), which up to then had monitored courses in the former Polytechnic sector, which included most tourism courses as well as the decision to end the involvement of HM Inspectorate in Higher Education. The implications of these developments were considered in a report on tourism degrees produced by the CNAA (1993). This pointed to the need to establish a body to take an overview of tourism degree course provision at a time of very rapid expansion.

NLG came into existence following a national conference held in London in October 1993. Its objectives were:

1. To develop and promote the links between education and industry, especially with the commercial sectors;

2. To promote the development and recognition of tourism as a subject of study in the UK and liaise as appropriate with other European Union countries and internationally;

3. To encourage high standards in course provision;

4. To identify and communicate 'good practice', statistics and other information about first degrees and postgraduate qualifications in tourism;

5. To liaise with other bodies concerned with higher education in tourism;

6. To support, undertake and disseminate research to further these objectives.

It was established as a membership body, with members being institutions and organisations and it was intended to draw members from the education sector and from the commercial and public organisations involved in tourism. The "liaison" in its name was in part to reflect liaison between industry and education.

After seven years of activity two key issues led the organisation to review its role and objectives. The first was the simple fact that although it had endeavoured to bring representatives from "industry" into its activities it had not been able to attract them into membership. Secondly, and more importantly, with increased involvement by Government agencies in education there was a growing need for a "subject association" to represent tourism. De facto NLG was increasingly carrying on the role of a subject association. This was best demonstrated by the request that it represent tourism in the Quality Assurance Agency's Benchmarking exercise in 2000. As a result the decision was taken at the AGM held in December 2000 to revise the organisation's constitution and to change its name. The key points agreed at the AGM were:

1. membership of NLG and hence of the executive committee should be confined to higher educational institutions;

2. membership should continue to be on an institutional basis;

3. ways should be sought to involve other stakeholders in higher education in tourism in the work of the Organisation, including co-option to the executive committee;

4. the Objectives of the Organisation should be revised

5. the name of the Organisation should become Association for Tourism in Higher Education