Real Estate Education in Europe: Some Perspectives on a Decade of Rapid Change

Over the last decade Europe has witnessed significant changes in the structure and provision of real estate education. A number of obvious developments have taken place: real education in many institutions has migrated from a base in the built environment professions to a business school setting; the number of providers has increased and within this the balance of provision has shifted towards postgraduate modes incorporating both full-time and flexible delivery; the market for graduates has become increasingly dominated by the leading international real estate and financial service firms. This paper seeks to identify the key drivers of change in the characteristics of real estate education in Europe by directly relating these developments to the significant changes which have taken place in the structure of individual European real estate markets. Many of these relate directly to the internationalisation of real estate activities set against a wider process of European integration. In particular, structural changes in European Real estate investment markets and in the characteristics of real estate service providers are examined as key drivers of change in real estate education. Within this analysis issues relating to accreditation at both national and local levels are also considered. As an extension of the analysis the paper explicitly considers the potential impacts of two additional change agents specifically the ëBologna Processí and the ëEuropean Real Estate Society Education Seminar Initiativeí. The paper concludes by assessing the sustainability of the trends identified and examines the extent to which lessons from the European experience are relevant in the context of other regions.