The year of 2016 brought many exciting changes and visitors to Glion Institute of Higher Education, across all campuses and throughout every department.
We’ve seen the opening of new facilities, the development of new student organizations and industry partnerships, and the launch of new programs and projects along with a fair number of awards and academic achievements.
Here’s the round-up of our highlights from 2016.
Awards and Accreditation
Jacquie Lutz, Career and Internship Department Manager, with Fabienne Rolandin, Executive Director External Relations and Scott Noble, Glion Director of Marketing, at the WHA award ceremony.
Glion received the award for “Best Innovation in an Educational Program 2016” at the Worldwide Hospitality Awards in Paris, on 14 November 2016. “This award recognises our student-centric approach and how we have improved our ‘millennial students’ learning experiences through technology.” said Fabienne Rollandin, Executive Director External Relations of Glion Institute of Higher Education. Read the press release here.
THE-ICE: Glion gained status as a full member of THE-ICE, an international education accrediting organization with a global network of 32 institutions comprising public and private universities, vocational institutions, and private hotel schools from 14 countries.
QAA Accreditation UK: Glion has undergone an educational oversight monitoring visit by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA). The QAA monitoring team has concluded that Glion Institute of Higher Education are making acceptable progress in implementing the action plan from the Recognition Scheme for Educational Oversight. Read the final QAA report for Glion Institute of Higher Education here.
New Facilities & Student Activities
Glion London moved to Downshire House: A beautiful Grade 2 listed Georgian Villa with 7 classrooms all equipped with the latest Genee board and multi-media equipment, the new London Hub open space, and a Study Zone with its Mac computers. Take a tour with the new virtual tour.
Student Government Association: The SGA has a new structure created to empower students and develop leadership as well as ‘real’ entrepreneurship skills, with a focus on real elections and committees. The Charity Committee, Sports, Glion Insider (student newspaper) and GradCom (organizes the graduation ceremonies) are all integrated into the new system
Glion students gave back: The Glion Charity Committee organized many events throughout the year and reached their fund raising goals. First, for the benefit of Casa Alianza in Mexico and the Uganda Charity Trust foundation, both providing housing and education resources for underprivileged youths. In semester two, they raised over 5,000 CHF for ShareADream and Sumba Hospitality Foundation, founded by a Glion alumna to provide vocational hospitality courses and sustainable tourism on the developing island of Sumba.
The “Glion meets Bulle” projects: Bulle students volunteered and led fantastic community initiatives including sport classes in English for the local schools in 8 gymnasiums, combining Glion’s cultural fair with Bulle’s “balade gourmande”, and also participation in the federal Clean-Up Day in September.
New Programs & Applied Learning
Two new Master’s of Science (MSc) Programs: Starting in January 2017, Glion offers two new programs: the MSc in International Hotel Management, which is available in both Switzerland and London, and the MSc in Event, Sport and Entertainment Management, available in Switzerland.
Applied Learning at Glion: Undergraduate students are now doing their applied learning courses at Glion campus. The practical courses are now paired with their corresponding management theory courses to integrate practical skills and business principles of operational functions before students head out to their first internship. Students are now working at the Glion reception desk, the student reception desk, the Bellevue, Club and Table des Alpes, as well as serving coffee and making smoothies at the Skyline, and doing housekeeping and rooms division practical courses.
La “Table des Alpes” Opened to the Public: In August, Glion opened its student-run restaurant “La Table des Alpes” in Glion village, to the public for lunch and dinner, Tuesday-Friday.
ESE Program in London: Glion’s Event, Sport and Entertainment Management BBA program is now being offered on the London campus with opportunities to transfer to and from Switzerland. This year, Mike Abson, a key faculty member of ESE brought us insights from the UEFA EURO 2016, and ESE students volunteered for the Matterhorn Ultraks Trail Run Event.
Hospitality and Tourism Industry Partnerships & Events
Glion Recruitment Days: The Career & Internship Department launched new Recruitment Days, led by Ms. Siwattra Fertil. In March, 40 visitors representing 19 companies visited in Glion and 4 in Bulle, and in October 47 representatives from 17 companies. Companies including: Mandarin Oriental Hotels Group, Fairmont le Montreux Palace, Walt Disney Park and Resort, The Landmark London, Four Seasons George V, and many more top companies. An estimated 400 students from Glion and Bulle campuses participated in 17 company stands and 200 interviews were held during the event.
Hospitality Tech Start-ups at the MSc Conference: The Glion Start-up Lab was an interactive conference featuring speakers from rising hospitality start-ups, crowdfunding platforms, incubators, and the world of finance. During the event, Glion students had the opportunity to ask questions and present their business pitch for a hospitality start-up. Read about it on the blog.
Partnerships with WTM and NYT industry events: In November, Glion teamed up with World Travel Market (WTM), the leading global event for the travel industry, for this fall’s WTM show at the ExCeL in London. This three-day b2b exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry was completely revamped for 2016 to give students a real insight into a career within the travel and tourism industry. In December, Glion partnered with The New York Times Luxury Travel conference, which took place on 1-2 December at the Grand Hyatt Singapore to exchange ideas with global thought leaders at this crucial summit to explore the future of luxury travel.
Luxury Brand Management Conferences & Events
Inside Luxury Conference: Glion London hosted this event at Home House in London with a panel of guest speakers from leading luxury companies based in the UK. See the details and video on the conference webpage. Following that event, several publications picked up the related opinion piece, such as UK luxury trade publication Spear’s and hospitality trade platform Hsyndicate.
Innovate Luxury Conference: Held in September on the Bulle campus, this event featured a keynote speech by Mr. Christian Blanckaert, former CEO of Hermès Sellier and EVP Hermès International, and a panel discussions with leaders of top luxury brands. Editor Christiane Muller was among the attendees and summarized the event for The Luxury Channel .
Watch the video summary with key insights into luxury industry trends here.
The Glion Luxury Voyage: In October, Glion welcomed luxury/fashion/lifestyle bloggers from different parts of the world (India, Russia, China, Italy, UK, Germany and Switzerland) and partnered with different institutions such as Patek Philippe, Caviar House, Fairmont Palace, Domus Academy, Mandarin Oriental and 10 Corso Como to create a truly luxury experience and a tailored made program. The bloggers shared their experiences abundantly over social media channels which you can see on the Glion News pages.
Glion Alumni Association & Success Stories
Glion Alumni-Student Network Event, November 2016 on Glion Campus
This year, the Alumni Association of Glion (AAG) launched a new app to help Glion alumni manage their profiles, keep in touch, and connect with local chapters. And the AAG participated in over 100 events around the world. Throughout the year, we collected the stories of alumni who are leading inspiring careers across a wide range of industry sectors around the globe.
Here’s a list of some of this year’s top alumni stories.
- Hanna Beraud-Hindi ’13, Founder of Hannah Beraud Digital Communications
- Jeffrey Messud ’10, founder and CEO of Xotelia a hospitality tech start-up
- Jean Ganizate ’13 and Antoine Martinez ’13 just opened their Texas BBQ restaurant in Paris “Melt“
- Francesco Netto ’14 and Alexandra Sergeeva’16 worked on the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Game
The following alumni are all working in London and were interviewed as part of the “Day in the Life” series published by the London Alumni Chapter:
- Harry Turpin ’13, Export Sales Manager at Cawston Press
- Celine Gathy ’15, Revenue Management Analyst at Kuoni Group
- Darya Radchencko ’12, Financial Analyst at Bloomberg
- Karl Hindi ’12VIP Customer Relations Manager for Grosvenor Casino
And there are many more. Visit the alumni section of the Glion blog for more success stories.
Key Appointments & New Ownership
On June 15, 2016, Eurazeo finalized the acquisition of Glion Institute of Higher Education (Glion) and Les Roches International School of Hotel Management (Les Roches) and their interests in affiliated campuses and partners. This transfer of ownership has been approved by the university accreditation authority the New England Association for Schools and Colleges (NEASC).
This change in ownership sparked the development of a new global education brand: Sommet Education.
Mr Guy Vermaelen, joined Glion Campus Monday July 4th as Glion Campus Manager.
Mr Philippe Kopcsan was nominated to join GIHE as Director General Switzerland, effective October 24th, 2016.
Georgette Davey was promoted to the role of Director General, GIHE UK.
Benoît-Etienne Domenget will be joining Sommet Education as Chief Executive Officer in January 2017.
Looking back & Looking forward
Overall, 2016 was a very productive and inspiring year at Glion Institute of Higher Education. We want to thank all of our students, faculty, staff, alumni and everyone in the global Glion family for their hard work, collaboration, support, good humor and enthusiasm. We also say thank you to our collaborators who have left the institution over the course of the year, we wish them happy trails in their new endeavors and appreciate everything they have done for Glion.
2017 promises to be another year of innovation and excitement as we push forward to achieve Swiss accreditation, start the new preparatory year, and get our first class of MSc in Hotel Management and ESE, as well as the New Venture Creation specialization students underway.
We wish everyone a very happy end to 2016 and all the best for the New Year!
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