Research methodology

Discovery

Institutions and programs are found through official higher-education registers, institutions’ own websites and public lists of accredited or recognized providers. Directories, rankings and search results may point us to a candidate; they never verify a fact. Candidates are tracked in a persistent research register, so that what has been checked, what is pending and what was excluded stays visible to editors.

Verification workflow

1. Confirm the institution exists, operates and publishes current information on its own website. Closed institutions are excluded.
2. Confirm the campus where students study, not just an administrative office or a partner’s address.
3. Confirm the program on its own official page, and classify it by degree level and subject using the exact award title as published.
4. Record who teaches and who confers the degree, and whether this differs by campus.
5. Record delivery and study intensity separately: on-campus, hybrid or online; full-time or part-time. An online program that requires campus visits, on-site exams or an in-person placement says so.
6. Record language of instruction, including any English pathway.
7. Extract fees, admissions and intakes as published.
8. Save sources: the page address and a short verbatim quote for each fact. A script re-fetches the pages and checks that each quote is still present; facts whose quote cannot be found are withheld or downgraded.
9. Review and publish. Each fact carries a source and each record shows when it was last checked.

Verification statuses

A profile is labelled by how it was established: Research checked (verified by us against official sources), Claimed by school (a verified representative manages it; facts are still checked), School-submitted (information supplied by the institution and not yet fully checked) and Sponsored (a paid placement, unrelated to verification). See sponsorship disclosure.

Unknown is shown as “Not published” or “Not stated”. It is never turned into “No”, and a missing admission requirement never means that none exists.

What is included

Degrees whose official title, award or named specialization is hospitality management or a close equivalent (hotel management, international hospitality management, luxury hospitality management, hospitality and tourism management, events, restaurant and foodservice management, revenue and asset management). The hospitality content must be a substantive part of the official curriculum. Culinary arts degrees, general business or tourism degrees without a hospitality focus, and general MBA programs are not listed.

Recognition

Recognition is recorded in four separate kinds: institutional recognition, authority to award the qualification, program accreditation and professional association membership. Each is shown with its scope and source and is never extended automatically to another campus, a partner institution or another country. Rankings are not recognition. Statuses are verified in an official record, stated by the institution, not verified and sources conflict. Details are in recognition explained.

Fees

Prices are shown in the original currency with their basis (per year, per semester or term, per credit, whole program), the academic year or period and the student category the institution states. A per-semester or annual price is never presented as the cost of the whole degree. A whole-program total is shown only when published, or calculated from published figures with the assumptions visible. We do not convert currencies, sort by price, or merge different currencies, bases or fee categories. We do not assume that nationality alone decides which fee applies. Mandatory extras are separate lines, and fee information older than about ten months is flagged as possibly outdated.

English-taught rule

A program is labelled English-taught only when the institution’s official pages state that it is taught entirely in English. A translated website is not evidence. Programs taught partly in English are labelled as partial.

Editorial selections

The Best pages are editorial selections, not league tables. Each states the degree level considered, the criteria, the sources and a review date, and has no numbers or invented scores. Selections are limited by what we have verified so far: an institution that is not selected may simply not have been researched yet, and a selection is not a statement that others are worse. Sponsorship has no influence on inclusion.

Sponsorship separation

Sponsored placements are labelled, sit outside organic results and never affect verification, recognition, selection or order. See sponsorship disclosure.

Images

Photographs are used only when licensed or authorized, with recorded provenance (image credits). Destination imagery is decoration and is never evidence of an institution’s facilities. We do not use generated campuses, and hotel photographs are not presented as campuses.

What we do not do

• We do not invent institutions, programs, awards, recognition, tuition, rankings, scores, reviews, employment rates, salaries, partnerships or testimonials.
• We do not imply that any program leads to a visa, a paid internship, a job or a particular salary, and we give no immigration advice.
• We do not bypass bot protection or access restrictions. Where an official page or register could not be reached, the record says so.

Corrections and freshness

Fees, intakes and programs change. Report errors through the correction form; see the corrections policy.