In the middle of this, hybrid education has arrived. The format is gaining popularity, especially in hospitality and management programs. The idea is simple: Blend classroom teaching with online delivery, give students flexibility, and allow content to travel beyond the campus. On paper, it looks progressive.
The undergraduate learner needs presence, not flexibility
A student entering a hospitality programme straight out of school is not looking to top up knowledge. They are looking to understand how the world works. That understanding cannot come from a link. It has to come from rhythm, repetition, feedback, and presence.
Hospitality is not a broadcast subject. It is built on context: a pause before responding to a guest, the tone used to manage a high-pressure moment, and the presence a student carries while addressing a team. None of this can be learned in a standalone module. These are patterns that students catch when they show up, sit through, practice, and observe.
At this stage, presence matters more than content. Students build emotional intelligence by navigating group dynamics, reading body language, and understanding service cues. The industry expects muscle memory, and the classroom has to reflect that expectation.
This is why I do not believe hybrid works for full-time undergraduate hospitality education. It interrupts the process of formation, removes the community, and reduces learning to delivery.
Hybrid works where experience already exists
There is a learner who benefits from hybrid. It is the mid-career professional who already knows how to manage service, solve problems, and lead a team. This learner is not trying to understand the basics. They are trying to reframe what they already know. They want perspective. They want structure. And they want to apply that thinking without having to leave their job.
We have seen this come to life through programs with The Leela, The Park, and JLL. Their teams come in with context. The hybrid format gives them the flexibility to reflect without pausing their careers. During the week, they learn, apply, and reflect. The rhythm works. The results show.
In these cases, hybrid supports growth, adds velocity, and gives people access to ideas that help them move forward. It does not try to recreate lived experience; it builds on top of it.
The user needs to be at the centre of the format
The professional and the student do not learn the same way. The professional has memory. The student is still forming instincts. The professional needs space. The student needs community.
Good education is not built around tools. It is built around fit. We have to ask who the learner is, what they need, and how we can deliver it without taking away the depth of the experience.
At ISH, we have made this decision very clearly. Our undergraduate students attend class, participate in peer routines, and get feedback in real time. We know they are still shaping identity, perspective, and behaviour. The structure helps.
For professionals, we offer flexibility. Their starting point is different. Their expectations are sharper. Their learning curve is faster. The hybrid format serves them well.
What needs to change
Hospitality is not a subset of hotel operations. It is a discipline in its own right. It draws from psychology, economics, systems thinking, and behavioural science. It deserves to be studied with the same seriousness as commerce, design, or engineering. The sooner we frame it that way, the sooner we begin to build graduates capable of shaping how people experience institutions, brands, and communities.
This shift will not come from reform. It will come from redefinition.
Hospitality needs to be taught as a discipline. Hotel operations can follow as apprenticeship programs. The traditional hotel management format no longer serves the purpose of undergraduate education. It is time for academia and the industry to come together and rebuild the foundation.
Only then do we create pathways that serve both the learner and the sector. Only then do we move from imitation to intent. Only then does hospitality education in India begin to reflect the complexity, relevance, and dignity the field already carries.
We need to build spaces where learning is active, where students are guided and taught, and where growth takes time, effort, and intent.
Hybrid will play a role in that ecosystem, but only if we understand where it belongs. It supports those who have walked the path, but it cannot shape those who are still learning to stand.
We need to respect that difference. That is the fundamental shift. That is what hospitality education in India needs to act on.
The shift is already underway, led by those who treat hospitality as a discipline, not a format. Those who adapt will build. Those who don’t are already fading.
Kunal Vasudeva
The author is COO, Indian School of Hospitality
