By By Dan Hounsell

The COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated what already is a challenging profession — healthcare facilities management. One outgrowth of the events of the last year is the realization that the profession can benefit from an influx of younger managers with specific understanding of the job that lies ahead for them, especially as it relates to senior living communities.

To that end, Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration is recruiting students for a new concentration in senior living in the Master of Management in Hospitality degree program, according to McKnight’s Senior Living. The concentration will extend the school’s reach into areas needing these skill sets, administrators said, adding it provides students the opportunity to bring the hospitality experience to the rapidly growing senior living and long-term care industries.

The Boston University program joins others that have launched in recent years, including an assisted living/senior housing administration concentration at George Mason University, a Master of Arts degree in Senior Living Hospitality at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, an undergraduate senior living management major at Washington State University’s School of Hospitality Business Management under the Granger Cobb Institute for Senior Living, and an undergraduate degree in senior living management in University of Central Florida’s Rose College of Hospitality Management.