February 15, 2002 Coastal Carolina University President Ronald R. Ingle has signed an agreement establishing a dual degree program in international tourism management with the International University College of Bad Honnef, Germany. Student exchange programs between the two universities will begin in the fall 2002 semester. The International University College of Bad Honnef, located just south of Bonn on the Rhine River, specializes in tourism, hospitality and aviation.

The dual degree program in international tourism management will allow students enrolled in the International University College of Bad Honnef's tourism management or hospitality management program to matriculate to Coastal for their final year of study, after completing program requirements in Germany. Students who complete the entire program will earn a bachelor's degree in business management with a major in management and a concentration in international tourism management from Coastal's E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration and an equivalent degree from their home university.

Coastal students will also be offered the opportunity to study in Bad Honnef and earn a degree from the German institution as well as a Coastal business degree. All courses at the International University College of Bad Honnef are taught in English.

"This program satisfies many of the goals of both institutions," said Ingle. "Coastal students earning a degree in international tourism management are required to study for one year outside the United States. German tourism and hospitality students who study at Coastal will have the advantage of working within one of the major tourism destinations in the eastern United States."

In recent years, Coastal's Wall College of Business has established four new collaborative programs with European universities in Mainz, Rheinbach and Bad Honnef, Germany, and in Barcelona, Spain. These programs have brought more than students to Coastal in the past three years. Faculty exchange has also taken place, students have been involved in collaborative learning projects with firms, and in fall 2002 Coastal will begin a series of courses offered by professors from these partner institutions. The first course, "History, Politics and Business in the New Europe," is scheduled to be taught during fall 2002.

"Our Spanish and German partner institutions of higher learning have a different approach to the study of hospitality and tourism than American institutions," said Taylor Damonte, Coastal's director of Resort Tourism Management and International Tourism Management. "There, tourism is a context for the study of social psychology. There, hospitality is an art form. Here in the United States tourism is more commonly studied as an economic issue and hospitality as a management discipline. Both sides will gain from the diversity of perspective."

Coastal has a very good reputation abroad for developing exchange programs which involve students and faculty in meaningful research projects with real-world applications, according to Darla Domke-Damonte, assistant professor of management and international programs coordinator for the Wall College of Business, who traveled to Bad Honnef in summer 2001 to discuss details of the exchange agreement. "Because of the increasingly global nature of today's economy, business students who have an international point of view will be better prepared to succeed," said Domke-Damonte.