The Indian School of Hospitality (ISH) is set to open its doors in Delhi NCR in August 2018. On the menu are two four-year undergraduate programmes—in hospitality management and in culinary arts—and a slew of shorter courses. Admissions opened from the last week of November. Under construction in Gurgaon, ISH is headed by founder-CEO Dilip Puri, former MD (India) and regional vice-president (South Asia) of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. The school’s advisory council—a statement issued to the media noted—includes top brass from groups such as Marriott International, The Oberoi Group, Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris, Accor Hotels, Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts, Sarovar Hotels & Resorts, and Jet Airways.
ISH, which has raised Rs 25.2 crore in its first round of funding, has partnered with Switzerland’s Lausanne Hospitality Consultation, a subsidiary of Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, for developing the curriculum and faculty training for its undergraduate courses. “Graduates will receive certification from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and a bachelor degree from a state university in Haryana. Students can also opt to study abroad for a semester to complete the programme in an international institute,” the statement added.
Puri said, “The journey from corporate hotelier to education entrepreneur has been a leap of faith. The idea for setting up a school of hospitality came when I found that even though Indian hotels are known globally for their quality, we do not have matching standards of hospitality education.” The campus, Puri added, will be ready by May 2018, “in time for the first intake of students in August 2018. The first phase can accommodate up to 300 students, and when built, it will accommodate 1,000 students.”
In addition, ISH intends to develop campuses in south and west India, and in Sri Lanka and Nepal. Future plans include setting up of skill development centres for tourism and hospitality across tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and development of an online education platform.