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Parents' praise for Leeds Beckett University teaching staff

Members of staff from the tourism subject area have been thanked by parents of a recent graduate for giving their daughter an outstanding university experience.

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Jess Marshall graduated with a first class BA (Hons) International Tourism Management degree in the summer of 2020, having spent 4 years at Leeds Beckett University. Following this, Ginny and Peter, Jess’s parents, wrote to the course team “to express our sincere thanks to you and the Tourism Team for all the support and encouragement you gave Jess.” The team’s dedication to teaching was evident from the start and Jess “knew she wanted to come to Leeds Beckett the moment we spoke to you at the Open Day because you were so positive about her being able to achieve her goals”.

Jess is amongst the first cohort to complete a revised course that focusses on ensuring graduates have the skills and insight needed to succeed in today's fast-moving tourism industry. To ensure, this the team talked to a lot of employers and past students to make sure that what is offered is relevant and interesting, whilst also introducing an approach to teaching that emphasises student-centred learning. One of the indicators of the success of that process is the fact that this year more first class degrees have been awarded than ever before - Jess and her peers have been able to use their time on the course to develop their academic, professional and personal skills to a high level, despite the disruption to their final few months caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Success like this has meant that parents like Jess’s “are extremely proud of her achievements” and that the “positive experience over the last four years will be highly beneficial in any future career she chooses”.

Also key to the positive university experience are the placement and work experience opportunities available to students - Jess took great advantage of this by spending a year at the Walt Disney World theme park in Florida where she gained a lot of experience in both front and back of house operations in a busy tourism business. This left her with “memories to last a lifetime” and like so many students who go out on placement in their third year of study, she came back with the drive and determination to succeed and this was evidenced by a particularly strong performance in her final year results. 

As well as delivering outstanding teaching and learning experiences (the course received a 100% satisfaction rate in the 2020 NSS survey) the teaching team also prides itself on the breadth and depth of support we offer our students throughout their time with us.  Every student is allocated an Academic Advisor who they meet on a regular basis throughout their time at the University, and with whom they are able to discuss how to tackle any particular personal or academic challenges they might be facing, as well as talk about on what extra-curricular activities they might take on to enhance their employability. 

As a teaching team, we are very proud of our student-focussed approach to everything we do and we genuinely enjoy seeing our students succeed - we wish Jess and all her fellow graduates the very best for their future

Additional Information

To learn more about the different tourism courses we offer please visit out courses page.

Dr Lisa Gorton

Course Director / School Of Events, Tourism And Hospitality Management

Lisa worked for 17 years in Industry before taking on her role at the university. Her experience spans small and large tourism organisations within the tour operating and retail distribution sector where she managed multi-million pound budgets and revenue streams.

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