An analysis of real estate curriculum requirements at AACSB International-Accredited Institutions

Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education, 2003 by Weeks, H Shelton, Finch, J Howard

Abstract. Real estate courses are a staple of business school curricula throughout the world, yet a wide diversity of courses, programs, concentrations and majors exist. Historically, the academic field of real estate has struggled with an identity crisis of sorts due to the lack of a widely recognized common body of knowledge that constitutes the core theory and concepts. To investigate the current state of real estate curriculum, all business schools in the United States accredited by AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business are surveyed to determine the depth and breadth of requirements to concentrate or major in real estate. The results indicate real estate major curriculums are moving toward a core group of required courses. However, there is little consensus on what courses constitute a concentration in real estate.

Introduction

It has been almost one hundred years since the first real estate classes were offered by universities in the United States (Nourse, 1995). Over this time frame the academic field of real estate has had a difficult time finding a clear niche within the academy. Real estate coursework has been variously characterized as vocational, a branch of economics, a branch of finance, or an independent academic field. Epley (1996) argues "...the area of real estate has not yet progressed through the early stages of evolution of analysis and discussion that would achieve the first level of delineation and consensus of opinion on the real estate [body of knowledge]." Indeed, a recent survey of nearly one thousand real estate executives conducted by Equinox Partners (2002), an executive search firm that specializes in real estate, concluded "Senior Real Estate Executives consider formal real estate education at the undergraduate and graduate level relatively unimportant as a criteria for evaluating potential employees." Clearly, if real estate is to survive and thrive long-term as a legitimate area of business school study, a strong curriculum that is recognized as enhancing students' ability to compete and succeed in the marketplace is a necessity.

The purpose of this paper is thus to investigate what curriculum requirements currently constitute real estate programs in colleges of business administration in the United States accredited by AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. By discovering and categorizing the coursework currently offered and required in concentrations and majors, this study hopes to extend the literature on real estate curriculum composition and provide insights for those business schools considering the establishment of new or expansion of existing real estate programs.

Literature Review

Nourse (1995) has documented the history of real estate course offerings in U. S. collegiate schools of business. He dates the original offering to 1905, meaning that academic real estate is now approaching its centennial anniversary. The question of whether real estate constitutes a subject sufficiently rigorous for academic curriculum was addressed early, with University of Michigan Dean Edmund E. Day expressing his opinion following a 1925 conference on the subject ". . . there were sufficient grounds for acceptance of the proposal that there be collegiate instruction on the subject," (Nourse, 1995). Bossard and Dewhurst (1931) reported that of forty-two member schools of business in AACSB, twenty-four offered courses in real estate. By 1981, thirty-five out of those same forty-two schools offered real estate as part of their curriculum (Garrigan and Wardrop, 1981).

A problem facing the field is the existence of both industry and academic constituencies advocating differing directions for curriculum development. Industry trade groups are comprised of residential real estate professionals, commercial real estate professionals, legal entities specializing in real estate law and transactions, appraisal and valuation concerns, real estate finance firms, etc. Black, Carn, Diaz and Rabianski (1996) argue constituent needs should be the driving force to guide the development of real property curricula. However, the characteristic often cited to differentiate vocational education from an academic field is active scholarly research, and this influence has led academic real estate toward finance and land economics as research studies adapt the theories and paradigms of these fields.

The linkage with finance curriculums has provided an avenue for real estate to become a standard component of many business school course offerings. Strickler (1985) found that 80% of a large sample of AACSB-accredited business schools offered a major or concentration in finance. However, finance has not been immune from disagreements among constituent groups as to what courses should comprise a standard concentration or major. Demong, Pettit and Campsey (1979) and more recently Zemedkun (1991) found finance faculty believed analytical and quantitative skills for problem solving were the highest priority, while practitioners favored communications and people skills. While the linkage of real estate with finance provides a framework for research theory and paradigms, it contributes little towards a standardized real estate curriculum.