Taylor’s Uni gets UN nod

THE United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has awarded the TedQual certification to Taylor’s University, making it the only institution in Malaysia to receive the highest accreditation for excellence by the UN.

The university was recognised for its Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Management academic programmes and research, joining 52 other universities around the world, such as George Washington University in the United States, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the University of Queensland in Australia.

The UNWTO is the UN agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.

The TedQual Certification System aims to encourage the improvement of the quality of tourism education, training and research programmes at worldwide level.

It comprises a series of evaluation criteria, that aims to measure the effectiveness of a university’s tourism education, training and research programmes, as well as to what extent it covers the needs of the tourism sector, civil society and the students.

Taylor’s University vice-chancellor and president Prof Michael Driscoll said this comes a couple of months after it was ranked 21st by QS World University Rankings by Subject for Hospitality and Leisure Management.

“This speaks volume of our distinctive strengths in outstanding teaching quality, significant impactful research conducted by our academicians, and the quality of graduates we produce.

“I would like to congratulate my colleagues in the Faculty of Hospitality, Food and Leisure Management for this milestone,” he said.

Prof Driscoll said he looked forward to more achievements by the faculties and the university as it works towards becoming one of the top universities in Asia by 2022.