Current practices and evolutionary trends of real estate education in a business school environment in Estonia

In Estonia university-based real estate education in a business school environment started in the middle of 1990ies, together with the formation and development of real estate market, when universities began to include real estate related courses into their business administration curricula. Subsequent development of real estate education was connected on the one hand with the reforms in the field of higher education and on the other hand with the development of professional standards and the launch of certification of real estate related professions. At present the schools of economics and business administration of most universities have real estate related courses in their curricula ñ at the levels of diploma, bachelorís and masterís degree studies. Prevalent courses are real estate economics, real estate finance, real estate appraisal and real estate marketing. However, there are only a few real estate related curricula, e.g. the real estate management curriculum in Tallinn University of Technology. In developing courses in the schools of economics and business administration primarily the necessity for qualified real estate appraisers, - brokers and ñmanagers has been kept in mind. Consequently the universities have participated in working out the professional standards of the above-named professions, in synchronizing professional requirements in an international level and in carrying out professional qualification exams, in co-operation with the professional associations. The further directions of developing real estate education are the refinement of the methodical side of existing courses, the development of real estate courses at the doctoral level and the participation in international co-operation networks, in order to offer a wider scale of opportunities in choosing courses to students who decide to specialize in real estate field.