Master of Applied Hospitality Management (MAHM)

The Master of Applied Hospitality Management (MAHM) at Le Cordon Bleu Australia is a postgraduate degree for people who want to run hospitality businesses rather than just work in them. It's built around the parts of the job that trip people up once they move into management: reading a profit and loss statement, costing a menu properly, rostering to a wage budget, negotiating with suppliers, and keeping a venue compliant. You'll study service operations, revenue and yield management, food and beverage management, marketing, and the people side of the industry, recruitment, training and retention in a sector that lives or dies on its staff.

How the degree is structured

Australian master's degrees usually run one to two years full time, and this one is listed at three years, which tells you it's a longer, more applied pathway than a standard coursework master's. Study is organised into units of study, each worth a set number of credit points, delivered across semesters. You accumulate credit points unit by unit until you meet the requirements for the award. Because it's an applied degree, expect a capstone unit or industry project near the end where you pull everything together, a real operational or business problem, worked through with the analytical tools you've picked up along the way.

Skills you come out with

You learn to build and defend a budget, price a menu so it actually makes money, analyse occupancy and covers data, design a service standard and train a team to hit it, and manage the legal and workplace obligations that come with running a venue. The commercial judgement matters as much as the operational knowledge, hospitality managers who can read the numbers and lead a casual workforce are the ones who get promoted. Assessment is typically a mix of exams, reports, group projects and presentations, much of it based on real venues and real trading conditions.

Who it suits

This suits graduates with a hospitality, tourism or business degree who want to move up, and also people already working in hotels, restaurants, events or food service who want a formal qualification behind their experience. Le Cordon Bleu has a long history in culinary and hospitality education, and its Australian campuses sit inside a hospitality industry that employs a large share of the workforce, hotels, resorts, restaurants, catering, events and tourism operators all hire from this pool. International students should note that a Student visa generally allows 48 hours of work per fortnight while studying, and graduates may be eligible for the Temporary Graduate visa (subclass 485) post-study work stream, which lets you stay and work after you finish. Check the official CRICOS listing and the university's own page for entry requirements, English proficiency (IELTS 6.0–6.5 overall is the common coursework-postgraduate standard), fees and intake dates before you apply.

• Hospitality manager, hotels, resorts, restaurants and function venues across Australia.
• Food and beverage manager, overseeing restaurant, bar and banquet operations.
• Revenue or reservations manager, pricing rooms, managing yield and distribution channels.
• Events and conference manager, planning and running corporate and social events.
• Operations manager, multi-site groups, catering companies and contract food service.
• Venue or general manager, running a standalone restaurant, pub or club.
• Business development or sales manager, hospitality groups, tourism operators and hotel chains.