HOSPITALITY ASSURED
Front row (from left to right - starting 3rd from left): Wendy Courtney - Business Support Manager, Hospitality Services; Dr Floella Benjamin - Chancellor of the University of Exeter, holding the Hospitality Assured plaque; Richard Narramore - Head Chef, Hospitality Services; and to the left behind Richard Narramore: Simon Malloy FHCIMA - Director (Hospitality Services). Linda Martin, HCIMA Director of Programmes for Hospitality Assured is pictured in the front row (5th from right).
JANUARY 2007
First Devon University to gain prestigious national service and business excellence award for its hospitality.
The University of Exeter has become the first university in Devon to achieve Hospitality Assured and the 15th to do so worldwide. The University gained the award for its Hospitality Services.
The University of Exeter has 12,000 students, of whom approximately 4,000 live in University accommodation. Of that number, around half reside in University catered halls, whilst the other 50 per cent occupy self-catering flats. The scope of the Hospitality Assured assessment, which focused on the University’s Hospitality Services, included: residences, retail services, catering, vending, conference operation, sales and marketing, quality, health and safety, finance, security, transport and facilities.
Representing Hospitality Assured, Linda Martin, the HCIMA’s Director of Programmes responsible for Hospitality Assured, presented the Hospitality Assured Certificate and Award to the University of Exeter’s Chancellor Dr Floella Benjamin, who accepted them on behalf of Simon Malloy FHCIMA, the University’s Director of Hospitality Services, and his team on 26 January – at a special ceremony held at the university.
Linda Martin said: “I would like to congratulate Exeter University’s Hospitality Services, under the leadership of Simon Malloy, on its fine achievement in gaining Hospitality Assured with a good overall initial assessment score. The assessors were particularly impressed by the apparent commitment and enthusiasm of the people interviewed in the department, where service quality is a number one priority.”
An estimated 15% of all the UK’s universities have now achieved the Hospitality Assured Standard for aspects of their hospitality services – including residential, catering and conferences. The universities include: Brunel; Brighton; University College London (UCL), London; Royal Holloway College, London; Glasgow; Leeds; Southampton; St. Andrews, West of England, Bristol; and University of Wales residential conference centre at Gregynog, Montgomeryshire.