ERES Conference 2010

Milan, Italy

23-26 June 2010

Critical Factors and Essential Elements for RICS Accredited Real Estate Postgraduate Conversion Courses in the UK

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Background about this paper

Research project

An Investigation into Real Estate Consultancy’s Expectations of Real Estate Graduates

Funded by

Centre of Education in Built Environment (CEBE)

Innovative Projects in Learning and Teaching Grant

This paper

This paper is to present the literature of this project which aims to identify the knowledge, skills and attributes as required from real estate graduates

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Reason for conducting this researchIncrease in graduate programmes (2003-2009)

For example, in the UK

Increase in students on RICS accredited courses in the UK (2000-2008)

(RICS 2009)

2000 2007 2008

Undergraduates 2949 4031 4258

Postgraduates 419 4716 5156

Total 3368 8747 9417

2003 2008 2009

Undergraduates 138 121 127

Postgraduates 129 220 235

Total 267 341 362

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Reason for conducting this research (cont'd)

• Increasing graduates means there are more graduates entering surveying profession

• Recession: Affected the labour market for real estate professionals

• It is time to investigate whether higher education institutions equip real estate graduates with the appropriate skills, knowledge, and competencies for their careers

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Competing interests

• Employers– Expect graduates to be immediately effective, instant fee earners– Focus on professional knowledge– Feel graduates are not prepared for work

• Academics – Teach broad educational aims– Teach higher level intellectual skills– Focus on scientific knowledge– May believe employers should play a greater role in graduate training

(Davies, Csete & Poon, 1999; Eraut, 1994; Harvey, Moon & Bower, 1999; Love, Haynes & Irani, 2001)

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Our Study: Aims and Objectives

• Identify– What industry / employers expect of real estate graduates– What industry / employers feel real estate graduates currently demonstrate– What real estate graduates’ feel they acquire from their education

• Apply– How, if at all, should real estate course be modified?– Are courses employing most suitable teaching / learning strategies?

• Goal– Enhance quality and standing of real estate professionals in UK

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Industry expectations

• General graduates - Employers desired people who were:– Adaptive– Adaptable– Transformative

(Harvey et al., 1997)

• General Property and Construction graduates – Graduates lacking:– Financial expertise– Business management skills– Strategic planning skills– Operational management skills– Communication skills

(College of Estate Management, 1992)

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Industry expectations (Cont'd 1)

• Construction Management graduates – lacking / desired – General intellectual and analytical skills– Specialist technical skills– Practical knowledge– Technical of behaviour skills

(Davies et al., 1999)

• Additional characteristics rated as important when recruiting graduates

(Massyn, Mosime & Smallwood, 2009)

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Industry expectations (cont'd 2)

• Practical building knowledge

• Professional judgement

• Interpersonal skills

• Time management (Love et al., 2001)

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Industry expectations (Cont'd)

• Corporate Real Estate graduates – lacking / desired – Strategic planning– Real estate portfolio management– Negotiation– Deal making (Gibler, Black & Moon, 2002)

– Management– Leasing– Development– Real Estate finance– Acquisition– Sales (Epley, 2004)

– Practical skills and knowledge– Building construction– Property development (Callanan & McCarthy, 2003)

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What are real estate courses teaching?

• Programme designed to produce graduates with these skills:– Decision-making– Risk analysis– Social / ethical responsibility– Negotiation– Critical thinking / problem solving– Oral / written communication skills– Leadership– Use of technology– Life long learning (Galuppo & Warzala, 2004)

• Only some agreement across programmes (course taught)– Real estate principals – Appraisal– Finance – Valuation

(Weinstein & Warzala, 2008)

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Do university feel they need to teach these needed skills and attributes?

• Mixed results– Some skills and competencies identified as important were taught, others were

not (Manning & Epley, 2006)

• Graduates concerned about lack of:– Practical experience– Land economics– Planning studies– Practical commercial content (Callanan & McCarthy, 2003)

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Questionnaire development

• Reviewed industry / employers expectation literature

• Reviewed course offerings literature

• Reviewed current course offering in UK

• Reviewed APC competencies

• Received expert opinion and feedback

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Questionnaire development (cont'd)

• Two sets of questionnaires were developed

• One questionnaire was sent to real estate graduate employers

– Contacts details are from RICS on-line Directory

• One questionnaire was sent to recently qualified real estate graduates or APC candiate

– Contact details are from RICS APC candidate/ recent qualified surveyor database

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Knowledge

• Asset management

• Portfolio management

• Real estate agency

• Property law

• Landlord and Tenant Law

• Strategic management

• Real estate marketing

• Business marketing

• Basic accounting

• International real estate

• Professional practice and ethics

• Client care

• Conflict avoidance and resolution

• Risk management

• Corporate structures

• Property development

• Project management

• Sustainability

• Planning

• Environmental impact assessment

• Quantitative techniques

• Research methods

• Data management

• Urban regeneration

• Construction technology

• Health and safety

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Skills

• Effective written communication

• Report writing

• Second language

• Numeracy

• Information technology

• Organisational skills

• Time management

• Industry based software/tools

• Statistics

• Research and analysis

• Critical thinking

• Decision making

• Ability to define and solve problems

• Management

• Negotiation

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Attributes

• Personal and social awareness

• Professional attitude

• Ability and willingness to update professional knowledge

• Practical experience

• Willingness and ability to accept responsibility

• Ability to work independently

• Ability to deal with stress

• Self-motivation and self-discipline

• Tenacity and determination

• Self-confidence

• Ability to effectively work as part of a team

• Interpersonal skills

• Leadership

• Innovation

• Enthusiasm

• Adaptability and flexibility

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Early results

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References

Callanan, J. and McCarthy, I. (2003) Property education in New Zealand: Industry requirements and student perceptions. Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education, 6(1), pp. 23-32.

College of Estate Management (1992) The Skills Mismatch. A Research Report Funded by MEPC Research Award Scheme. The College of Estate Management, Reading

Davies, H.A., Csete, J. and Poon, J. (1999) Employer’s expectations of the performance of construction graduates. International Journal of Engineering Education, 15(3), pp.191-198.

Epley, D. R. (2004) New ranking of decision-making subject areas for corporate real estate executives. Journal of Real Estate Education,26(1), pp. 43-68.

Eraut, M. (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence. Falmer Press, London.

Gibler, K. M., Black, R. T. & Moon, K. P. (2002) Time, place, space, technology and corporate real estate strategy. Journal of Real Estate Literature, 24(3), 235-262.

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Harvey, L., Moon, S., Geall, V. and Bower, R. (1997) Graduates’ Work: Organisational change and students’ attributes (web-based publication). Centre for Research into Quality, Birmingham City University, UK.

Love, P.E.D., Haynes, N. S., and Irani, Z. (2001) Construction managers’ expectations and observations of graduates. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16(8), pp.579-593.

Massyn, M., Mosime, L. and Smallwood, J. (2009) Construction management graduates – do they have the competencies that industry need? RICS COBRA Research Conference, University of Cape Town, 10-11th September 2009, pp.256-266.

Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (2010) RICS Partnership Meeting Presentation. RICS Education and Qualification Standards: Nottingham Trent University.

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Recap

• Competing interests between employers and academics

• Industry expectations on real estate graduates

• What are real estate courses teaching?

• Questionnaire development

• Sample of questionnaire

• Early results of questionnaire survey

Thank you