Education Profile of Academic Staff in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department: An Investigation on State Universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal the educational status of academic staff in the department of gastronomy and culinary arts. In accordance with this purpose, undergraduate, master, doctoral trainings and titles of academic staff was examined and reported. In this research, descriptive survey model, one of the qualitative research methods, was used as the data collection technique. The data was obtained by browsing the websites that contain the information of the departments and academic staff. It was determined that there are 243 academic staff in gastronomy and culinary arts department of 40 institutions. It was determined that approximately 40% of these academic staff is assistant professor. It was revealed that the majority of academic staff in the department of gastronomy and culinary arts have a degree in education in tourism. It was determined that 96 of 243 academic staff have undergraduate, master and doctorate degrees in tourism field. This determined number constitutes approximately 40% of the academic staff employed in the department. It was found that the number of academic staff who had education in food engineering has the highest number after tourism field. It was specified that the staff who had education in food engineering constitute 15% of the total academic staff. It was concluded that the education areas of the other academic staff working in the gastronomy and culinary arts program are quite diverse and different from each other.