The Swiss hospitality management school opens its Singapore campus next year, and its group CEO Michel Rochat has high hopes for this new outpost
A former private residence built in the 1900s will soon be home to the Singapore campus of Swiss hospitality management school Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL). The 2,400 sqm Kinloss House, located at Lady Hill Road in the Tanglin area, was originally the home of a British engineer during the colonial period, and later used as a boarding school for the children of members of the British military. Come 2021, the site will become EHL’s first campus outside Switzerland.
“Having a campus in Singapore changes the game. Asia is developing rapidly. The markets here are booming, and the energy in this part of the world is very positive,” says EHL Group CEO Michel Rochat on what its presence here means for this vaunted 127-year-old educational institution. “To mix this culture with the culture in the mature markets of Europe, it’s putting two very complicated systems together, almost like making a very intricate Swiss watch. I don’t want to import a culture. I want these two EHL campus cultures to produce a global culture for the group.”
One way of accomplishing that is to ensure that the EHL faculty members teaching here are rooted in Singapore and Asia. “I don’t want a ‘fly in, fly out’ culture,” says Rochat emphatically. Half of the faculty will likely be from or based in Asia, while the professors visiting from Lausanne will stay in Singapore for at least three to six months. “To provide huge added value, they need to experience the city and the opportunities it offers,” he believes. To walk the talk, he will base himself in Singapore for three months when the campus opens in 2021.