I am looking to re enter Higher Education after some years away and have secured a conditional offer at Brighton Uni to do an MA in Travel and Tourism management.
I was surprised to be asked to undertake research etc as one condition which has provided me with a logistical problem as I am about to embark on a summer season in France working for a holiday company, which I consider to be much more useful practical experience.

Does anybody know whether this pre- course work is a usual requirement, bearing in mind that at least ten other universities offer a similar course ?

In my day we were taught how to do the work and then undertook it actually during the course

Any comments ?

On most Masters courses there will be some taught elements but you will also be expected to write a relatively lengthy disseration (not as long as a PhD thesis, of course) - you should check out the course requirements in the prospectus - it's probably available online. Asking you to do something like this is usually the uni's way of getting a preliminary insight into your potential skills early on.

One thing you could do is combine your Summer Season work with a research project... think about a research question you could ask and investigate whilst away (depends if you have access to a computer, I guess)... if not, you could always do the pen and pencil way and sketch out some rough ideas rather than doing deep research... So, maybe something like impact of credit crunch on holidaymaker's spending habits, etc. Maybe conduct a survey of guests, etc. Pick something out you're interested in that might fit with your work. The kind of thing I suspect Brighton might be looking for is... can you think up a problem to investigate (research question), can you identify a way of investigating it (methods), can you implement it (case study), can you reflect on practicalities (finding participants, thinking about ethics of their involvement), can you - assuming you manage all these things - make sense of any data you collect (analysis) and produce an answer. Ethically, you'd probably need permission from your employer (and participants) - but you may even find your employer has something they might like you to look into. Think of it as an exploration of what research is like rather than a formal, full-blown, research task at this stage. Best of luck with it.(up)