Our Partners

Beyond the Souvenir is built on a genuine partnership between five universities across four continents. Each institution brings distinct expertise, regional context, and student populations to the project — and each plays an active role in developing the joint course, building regional stakeholder networks, and identifying scholarship candidates.

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VIVES University of Applied Sciences

Bruges, Belgium — Lead Institution

VIVES coordinates the overall project and hosts the ICP Connect scholarship students. Located in Bruges — one of Europe’s leading destinations for tourism and gastronomy — VIVES offers scholarship recipients an immersive learning environment that combines world-class facilities with direct industry exposure.

VIVES’s hospitality programme is known for its hands-on approach, including a former Michelin 3-star restaurant repurposed as a professional cooking lab and two top-tier practical restaurant training locations. VIVES is also a recognised leader in distance learning in Flanders, expertise that underpins the project’s joint online course.

VIVES manages the online learning platform, coordinates the scholarship admission process, drives the alumni network, and contributes a module on sustainable practices in European hospitality to the joint course.

Website: vives.be

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Mountains of the Moon University (MMU)

Fort Portal, Uganda

MMU is located in Fort Portal, a rural city in western Uganda at the gateway to several national parks. Its proximity to Uganda’s most important wildlife and nature tourism areas makes it a natural anchor for the Africa Hub’s focus on ecotourism and wildlife conservation.

VIVES has partnered with MMU since 2017, supporting the development and national accreditation of their Bachelor of Tourism and Hospitality Management. The first graduates of that programme are now working in the tourism sector in their region — a concrete example of what sustained international collaboration can achieve.

Within ICP Connect, MMU contributes to the joint course module on ecotourism and sustainable gastronomy in Africa, builds the regional stakeholder network in western Uganda, and helps identify scholarship candidates from its region.

Website: mmu.ac.ug

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Makerere University Business School (MUBS)

Kampala, Uganda

MUBS is based in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, and brings an urban, business-oriented perspective to the Africa Hub. Together with MMU, MUBS forms a deliberate urban-rural pairing that reflects the full spectrum of Uganda’s tourism landscape — from city-based hospitality to remote nature tourism.

MUBS contributes business and management expertise to the joint course and helps build the stakeholder network in Uganda’s capital, connecting the project to the hospitality industry, government bodies, and NGOs active in Kampala.

Website: mubs.ac.ug

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Quy Nhon University (QNU)

Quy Nhon, Vietnam

QNU is located in Quy Nhon, a coastal city in central Vietnam that is gradually emerging as a tourist destination. Vietnam’s tourism sector is growing rapidly, with a national strategy targeting 14% GDP contribution by 2030 through green growth and sustainable practices.

QNU’s current hospitality programme is nationally focused and theoretical, and the university is actively working to bridge the gap between its curriculum and the international standards needed for a global sustainable tourism industry. Key priorities include English proficiency training, practical skills development (banquet equipment, training software), and international cultural integration.

QNU is a member of the ASEAN University Network for Human Resource Management, and contributes a module on coastal tourism and cultural preservation in Southeast Asia to the joint course.

Website: qnu.edu.vn

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University of Cuenca (UCuenca)

Cuenca, Ecuador

UCuenca is a public university in Ecuador — free of tuition fees under the country’s constitution — and a recognised research institution in sustainable tourism, including in communities that depend on tourism in the Cajas Massif Biosphere.

Around 40% of UCuenca’s students come from economically vulnerable backgrounds. The university sees hospitality and tourism as a genuine pathway out of poverty for these students, offering an alternative to migration or informal employment. UCuenca leads the Southern Ecuador Tourism Studies Network, and brings this regional leadership and research expertise directly into the ICP Connect partnership.

UCuenca contributes a module on community-based tourism and local empowerment in South America to the joint course, and coordinates stakeholder engagement across the region.

Website: ucuenca.edu.ec