With over 15 years’ experience in the education profession at The School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), I have a successful track record of inspiring students, delivering a range of subjects in various areas of hotel management from higher diploma to degree level. The scores I have achieved in the Student Feedback Questionnaire system (SFQ), which is a formal system for collecting student feedback on teaching and learning at PolyU, are generally on par or above the School average. In March 2009, I was nominated by my students for the SHTM’s ‘Teaching Excellence Award’.

 

I am committed to and passionate about fostering a dynamic learning environment for our students. I have developed the SHTM Mentorship Programme to provide full‐time students with greater access to advice and guidance from external mentors. Over 100 mentors, including practitioners, managers and senior executives, have been recruited annually since the launch of the programme in 2002, and over 1,600 SHTM students have benefitted from the programme.

 

To motivate SHTM students to excel academically, I developed the SHTM Academic Achievement Award (AAA) to recognise those who achieve a very good grade point average (3.7 or above) in one semester, and to motivate those who performed relatively poorly to strive to improve.

 

In addition to teaching, since 2011 I have also served as SHTM Programme Leader of UGC-funded BSc programmes. I have been involved in selecting student applications, moderating examination scripts, advising students, handling credit transfer and exemption applications and assisting with programme promotion and curriculum design/revision. In 2017, I was appointed by Dean as the Undergraduate Programme Director to oversee the higher diploma programme and self-financed programmes in addition to the UGC-funded degree programmes. In 2012 and 2018, I led a group of colleagues and we successfully obtained Institute of Hospitality (IoH) re‐accreditation of the School’s Hotel Management Programme.

 

I am passionate about research and have demonstrated my expertise by building a solid and innovative foundation in Environmental Management. I have published research articles in prestigious international refereed journals, book chapters, entries in the hospitality and tourism encyclopaedia and have presented papers at international conferences. Many of my research articles are regularly referenced by other scholars. ‘Motivations for ISO 14001 in the Hotel Industry’ has, for example, been cited 479 times and ‘Barrier to EMS in the hotel industry’ 325 times since the former was published in 2006 and the latter in 2010 (Google Scholar). Furthermore, one of my co-authored paper – ‘Co-creation and Higher Order Customer Engagement in Hospitality and Tourism Services’ has been chosen as a Highly Commended Award Winner at the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2017. By integrating teaching and research (together with my former work experience in the field), I am able to share state-of-the-art knowledge with students and practitioners, helping to advance the industry as a whole.

 

I have successfully obtained several research grants in recent years, such as Internal Competitive Research Grants and Departmental General Research Funds granted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In my first application for the General Research Fund (2010/11) of the University Grants Committee (UGC), I achieved a very encouraging result (ranked 3.5 out of 5). Two years later I successfully obtained the General Research Fund (2012/13); a very important milestone in my research career. My applications for the General Research Fund Early Career Scheme in 2013/14 and the General Research Fund (2015/16) and (2016/17) were both also ranked 3.5. From 2002 to 2017 I successfully secured a total of HK$1,221,243 in research grants as Principal Investigator, which included ten internal research projects funded by PolyU and one General Research Fund project.

 

Since 2014 I have been appointed Coordinating Editor of the International Journal of Hospitality Management (a journal rated A+ by SHTM), an Editorial Advisory Board Member of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (also rated A+ by SHTM), and an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Tourism and Recreation, assisting the journals to administrate the reviewing process, and to review academic papers. In February 2015 and January 2017, the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management (IJCHM) cited me as one of their top 10 reviewers 2014 and 2016 for the high-quality critical reviews I contributed to the Journal, and in May 2016, I was nominated for the Research Excellence Award 2016 organised by SHTM.

 

Over the years I have used my expertise in hotel management to serve society at large. I supported the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA)’s audit team in assessing the ISO9000 quality management system at the World Trade Centre Grand Hotel Zhejiang in Hangzhou, China. Since 2014 I have served as external examiner for the course ‘HD in Hotel and Catering Management’ offered in the Hotel, Service and Tourism Studies of the Vocational Training Council.

 

I have conducted numerous seminars and workshops for the Hong Kong hotel and tourism industry, for various hotel, tourism and even banking companies, including the HKR International Limited, the Metropark Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Jockey Club and CitiBank. I have helped improve their service quality and methods of maximising revenue.

 

I participated in the PolyU’s internal institutional project to develop a transition support model, facilitating senior year undergraduate students to adapt to university life and study. I also participated in the ‘First in Asia with Second Life Virtual Campus’ project at PolyU; an immersive learning environment that included interactive teaching activities, and provided students with an innovative method of distance learning, simulation and teaching.

 

For SHTM, I have assisted in developing a significant social responsibility partnership with the Hospitality School of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, helping it develop a one‐year certificate course in Housekeeping Management. The Hospitality School, a non‐profit institution operated by the Vietnamese Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, provides hospitality training to disadvantaged youths and street children. Nearly all of its first group who graduated in June 2014 were hired immediately by the city’s hotels.

 

In addition to serving as SHTM Students’ Association Coordinator and Academic Advisor, being actively involved in building effective communication between the Association and the School and providing academic advice to students, I assisted the School as the HTM Alumni Association (HTMAA) liaison officer and Eta Sigma Delta (ESD) Chapter Advisor. I was involved in:

 

‐ The first selection of the ‘Outstanding PolyU HTM Alumni Award’

‐ The establishment of the Eta Sigma Delta (ESD) local chapter in our School

 

I was elected as a SHTM School Board member for a two-year term from 01 July 2016 to 30 June 2018.

I was awarded the Service Excellence Award 2016 by the SHTM for my contributions.