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The purpose of this paper is to establish the relevance of the real estate curricula being offered by the two universities in Botswana to industry.

This is a cross-sectional study in which a designed questionnaire was administered to the practitioners in real estate obtained from the membership list of the Real Estate Institute of Botswana (REIB), final-year students and former graduates of the Bachelor of Land Management programme using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. This resulted into the total population of 150 elements. Students for the Bachelor of Commerce in Real Estate (BCom RE) at Ba Isago and BSc Real Estate programme at the University of Botswana were excluded from the population because they did not have graduate degrees yet; therefore the study sample was drawn from the identified population at 90 per cent confidence level with a 10 per cent margin of error. The sampling frame composed of 122 registered property valuers and managers, 14 alumni and 14 final-year students of Land Management (150). The sample size of 60 was determined at 90 per cent level of confidence with a 10 per cent margin of error. The questionnaire was administered through e-mail using a contact list from the REIB to their members. It was also e-mailed to the alumni and physically administered to the final-year students as well. A 60 per cent response rate was achieved.

It was established that the three programmes offered at the two universities in their current form are relevant to the industry. The overall average scores out of 5 for these programmes were 4.14 for BSc Real Estate – UB, 4.10 for Bachelor Land Management – UB and 3.97 for BCom RE – Ba Isago University College. By using analysis of variance, the study further established that there were no significant differences between the two programmes that are offered at UB and the one at Ba Isago University College. This was established by looking at the computed F-test (0.89) and the critical F-test (2.36). Since the computed F-test was less than the critical F-test value, it was concluded that there is no significant statistical differences among the three programmes being offered in the two universities.

The major limitation in this study was the use of an e-mailed questionnaire to the property practitioners and alumni of the Land Management programme which is characterised by a low response rate.

Since the three overall mean scores are close to and above 4.00, it means the current programmes offered at the two universities are relevant to the industry.

The research results might be useful to the society and should be used to enhance the social uplifting of society by contributing to the decisions that are made which might affect the society as a whole.

This is the first study to be conducted in Botswana which was meant to establish if the real estate programmes offered in the two universities were relevant. It is the first study to compare and evaluate the relevance of the contents of three real estate programmes locally.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how and to what extent commercial awareness is embedded within the curriculum of the UK Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)-accredited real estate courses. It also discusses the development of commercial awareness taxonomy.

This paper presents the research findings of questionnaire survey and interviews with RICS-accredited real estate course providers in the UK. The questionnaire aimed to gather course directors’ views on the definitions and components of commercial awareness and identify what skills and attributes are required for its development. It also evaluated how commercial awareness has been embedded in the real estate courses. The aim of the interview was to gain deeper insight on how components of commercial awareness are embedded in real estate courses and nine interviews were conducted. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded to identify similar themes. The frequency of the answer in the questionnaire and comments from interviewees is presented.

The UK real estate academics agreed the most important definition of commercial awareness as that of a “person's ability on understanding of the economics of business”. They agreed that “strategic” is the most important component for commercial awareness, followed with “financial” and “process”. However, the “financial” component is embedded the most in the curriculum. The most important skill and attribute for commercial awareness development are “ability to define and solve problems” and “ability and willingness to update professional knowledge”, respectively. Commercial awareness was embedded in the overall curriculum and the key element for developing it is through having “practical experience”.

This project is the first to conduct an in-depth analysis of commercial awareness in real estate education. It also develops the pioneer commercial awareness taxonomy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited real estate courses in the UK have equipped real estate graduates with sufficient relevant employability skills to embark on a career in the profession. This paper considers the perspectives of four stakeholders – employers, human resource managers, graduates and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses – in the UK.

The results of a mixed-methods study, involving two online surveys with real estate employers and recent graduates of RICS-accredited real estate courses, and two sets of interviews with human resource managers of real estate surveying firms and course directors of RICS-accredited real estate courses, are presented.

The employers and graduates of the RICS-accredited real estate courses do not think the courses sufficiently equip graduates’ with employability skills. On the other hand, the human resource managers are very impressed with graduates’ technical skills but have concerns about their soft skills and attributes. Human resource managers and course directors of RICS real estate courses commented that commercial awareness is an important employability skill but graduates are not well developed in this area. Course directors also noted that practical experience is vital to employability, commenting that students can only obtain real-life practical experience if employers offer them opportunities.

This paper makes an original contribution to the existing literature on employability skills for real estate graduates. It describes pioneering research considering the perspectives of four types of stakeholders and evaluates whether real estate courses sufficiently develop graduates’ employability skills.

The aim of this paper is to identify the competency expectations for property professionals in Australia. It further discusses differences in competency expectations between property professionals who have different professional backgrounds, such as valuers or non-valuers, and property professionals who work in different sectors or different-sized companies and who have differing amounts of experience. The competencies identified in this paper include knowledge areas, skills and attributes.

This paper presents the research findings of a questionnaire survey sent to Australian Property Institute members, which aimed to gather Australian property professionals' views on the knowledge, skills and attributes required to perform their roles effectively. The percentage of the respondents who provided different choices of given answers for each of the 31 knowledge areas, 20 skills and 21 attributes was identified and discussed. The professional backgrounds of the respondents were also identified to see whether these impact on competency expectations for property professionals. Content analysis was used to analyse written comments collected in the questionnaire.

The most important categories of knowledge, skill and attribute for Australian property professionals are valuation, effective written communication and practical experience, respectively. The least important are international real estate, second language and creativity. Knowledge of rural valuation is very important in Australia, although this has not been mentioned in previous studies. Professional backgrounds have a large influence on Australian property professionals' views on knowledge requirements, but less so on skills and attributes.

The findings of this paper can be used as guidance for property professionals in their professional development plan. In addition, property course providers can use the research findings of this paper to inform their curriculum development and redesign.

This project is the first to identify the comprehensive competency expectations of property professionals as a whole in Australia. At the same time, it identifies differences in the competency expectations of property professionals who have different professional backgrounds. Similar types of study have been conducted in the UK, the USA, Hong Kong and New Zealand but not yet in Australia. An understanding of the knowledge, skills and attributes required for property professionals is important for continuing professional development, curriculum development and the redesign of relevant property courses in order to maintain performance and competitiveness in the property sector.

The purpose of this paper is to review how real estate students perceive and define commercial awareness, which is one of the most important employability skills. This paper also examines students’ perceptions about how their courses support and develop their commercial awareness. In addition, it compares students’ and academics’ views on commercial awareness and identifies whether there are any gaps.

This paper presents the research findings of a questionnaire survey and e-mail discussions with students who are currently studying Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)-accredited real estate courses in the UK. The questionnaire aimed to gather students’ views on the definitions and components of commercial awareness and identify what skills and attributes are required for its development. It also evaluates how commercial awareness has been embedded in the real estate courses. The aim of each discussion was to gain deeper insight on how components of commercial awareness are embedded in real estate courses, and 17 discussions were conducted. The contents of the e-mail discussions were analysed and similar themes were identified and coded. The frequency of the answer in the questionnaire and comments from interviewees is presented. The findings from students’ views have been compared to published research reporting UK RICS-accredited real estate course providers’ views on commercial awareness. In addition to descriptive statistics, Fisher's exact test was used to identify the statistical significance between the academics’ and students’ views on commercial awareness.

The UK real estate students agreed that the most important definition of commercial awareness is a “person's ability to understand the economics of business”. They agreed that “financial” component is the most important component of commercial awareness and it is the largest portion of their courses. The most important skill and attribute for commercial awareness development are “critical thinking” and “ability and willingness to update professional knowledge”, respectively. Although the descriptive analysis shows students and academics have different views on the definition and components of commercial awareness and its incorporation within real estate courses, the Fisher exact test shows that only a few elements are different enough to be statistically significant. This analysis shows that while students and academics have slightly different views on commercial awareness they are not very different. Commercial awareness is an important employability skill, thus, it is still necessary for real estate academics to re-visit the curriculum and to ensure learning outcomes related to commercial awareness have been clearly explained and communicated to students. Furthermore, it is vital for students to obtain practical experience in order to fully develop their commercial awareness.

This paper is a pioneer study focused on reviewing real estate students’ views on commercial awareness, including identifying its definition, components and evaluating the extent to which commercial awareness has been embedded in their courses. It also identifies the skills and attributes that students thought were required for the development of commercial awareness. Furthermore, it discusses students’ preferred ways of enhancing their commercial awareness as part of the course they are studying. It is the first study identifying the statistical difference between students’ and academics’ views on commercial awareness. The understanding of students’ views on commercial awareness, their preferred delivery method and the divergence between students’ and academics’ views on commercial awareness can provide useful insights for course directors on the development and renewal of real estate course curriculum.

The global shift in the traditional skills required of real estate graduates has led to an increased demand for employees who have the required skills and competencies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate employment considerations of real estate firms and analyse employers’ skill expectations and the observed skills possessed by the graduate employees. This study also analysed the self-assessed soft skill levels of the graduate employees, thereby establishing the skill gap.

Data were sought from real estate employers in the two dominant real estate markets of Nigeria: Lagos and Abuja, and real estate graduate employees who have had a minimum of six months working experience in real estate firms. Data collected were analysed using statistical techniques such as frequency, percentages, mean, correlation, multivariate analysis of variance, paired-samples t-test and independent samples t-test.

The findings of this study revealed that employers’ soft skills expectations were high with skills such as responsibility, administrative, listening, communication, business negotiation and work ethics. Based on employers' observed skills, there were significant skill gaps with respect to soft skills such as responsibility, business negotiation, logical thinking, marketing and dispute resolution. An analysis of the core skills reveals employers' preference for technical competencies in valuation, agency, property management, marketing, report writing and landlord and tenant laws. However, graduate employees possessed significant skill gaps with regards to technical skills such as valuation, property investment analysis, feasibility and viability appraisal, market research methods and facility management.

An understanding of the skill gaps will provide useful feedback to professional bodies, regulatory boards, institutions of higher learning, faculty members and other stakeholders regarding deficient skill areas, especially for curriculum review, development and training in the real estate sector.

There is a paucity of information about employers' skill preferences and the skill gaps in the real estate sector.

This paper aims to examine the skill requirements for the practice of corporate real estate management (CREM) in Nigeria.

Questionnaires were distributed to 270 practising estate firms in Lagos State, Nigeria, 145 final year students of Estate Management in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria as well as corporate real executive officers of the 24 recapitalised commercial banks, 21 insurance and five GSM communication companies in Nigeria. A total of 260 questionnaires (58 per cent) were returned and found useful for the study. The study adopted the descriptive method of percentages, mean and proportion method for analysis.

The study found that in rank order, the skill requirements for CREM were financial performance skill, investment in corporate strategy, productivity skill, space efficiency management skill and customers and employees' management skill. The mean figures for the five factors are 5.0, 4.8, 4.8, 4.73 and 4.67 respectively. The results of the analysis also showed further that the portfolio efficiency skill had a mean value of 3.58 and was rated by the respondents as the least skill required for corporate real estate management.

Limiting the scope of the study to CRE executives and practitioners in selected service industry and students of a university might pose a great challenge to the representativeness of the findings.

The study has major implications on real estate education and practice in Nigeria. There is an urgent need to overhaul the university/polytechnic curriculum to incorporate business and accounting knowledge to prepare real estate graduates for efficient practice and the continuous re‐training of practitioners to prevent future declining real estate profession.

The negative implication of joblessness arising from unemployable graduates of real estate by corporate organisations breeds more social vices.

The paper documents the requisite information needed for developing contemporary policy on real estate education in the country. It also serves as a guide for real estate practitioners and regulatory bodies for developing contemporary real estate practice to meet emerging trends in CREM practice and for relevance in the practice of CREM as an evolving sub‐discipline of estate management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a compulsory pass in physics on undergraduate admission into estate management programme and the requisite skill for practice.

Data were collected from students in selected Polytechnics and a University in South-western Nigeria. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. Also, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied to test the difference between the means of the independent variables and application for admission. The mean plot was used to analyse the different groups of students seeking direct entry admission into the university.

Analysis shows that 18 per cent of the students seeking admission through direct entry would be denied because they have no credit score or a pass in physics in their Ordinary Level (“O” level) result. Remarkably, high school physics is a compulsory requirement for admission. Findings show that the subject is unacceptable in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). An annual average of 10 prospective students who wrote physics in the UTME, but with a pass in it in the Senior Secondary School (“O” level) examination were denied admission at the point of registration. Findings from the hypothesis test show that there is no significant relationship between the rate of application for university admission into Real Estate programmes and students who took physics and had at least a pass in it. Also, the mean plot shows that more Art students would apply for admission compared with science and commercial students. Finally, analysis shows that 83.3 per cent of the students who have gone for Industrial Work Experience Scheme were of the opinion that physics has no role to play in their acquisition of the requisite job skills in Real Estate.

This study may be limited by the sample size of the universities selected for data collection. The impact of the requirement of a compulsory pass in physics for admission into real estate programme in other universities with a similar requirement is not covered.

The findings implied that a compulsory pass in physics constitutes a clog in the wheel of admission of prospective estate management students. This may affect career progression and the number of the Estate Surveyors and Valuers that are expected to render professional service to real estate investors in Nigeria.

This is the first attempt to examine the impact of variation in admission requirement into the real estate undergraduate programme in Nigeria. The novelty is in the analysis of a compulsory requirement of pass in physics for admission and the requisite skill for real estate practice in Nigeria.

Real estate professionals are a vital resource to the property firms and the industry at large. Employees’ skills, knowledge and competence contribute in great measure to organization’s business performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the adequacy of core knowledge and soft skills possessed by professional employees within the Nigerian real estate practicing firms. It also assesses the performance of the employees and establishes the correlation among the soft skills possessed by employees.

Data for this study were elicited through the administration of questionnaires on principal partners/branch managers (the employers) of the practicing estate surveying and valuation firms in Lagos metropolis. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-sample t-test and correlation analysis.

The result indicates that employees of estate firms in Nigeria demonstrate adequate knowledge in ten out of 21 core areas of real estate practice, while real estate agency has the highest mean, and inadequate knowledge in six others with least mean score in environmental impact assessment. The study also revealed that employees possess good listening and communication skills but are deficient in courteousness and writing skill, among others. It was also found that real estate employees were performing the best in inspection functions but below average in report writing and handling of transaction. The study also established a significant relationship among all the soft skills except communication skill and courteousness.

Further study that looks at the performance of real estate graduates working in other sectors/organizations other than estate companies is required to establish their competence level in global employment market. Further study is also needed to cover the views of the employees in Nigerian market as this study focuses on the views of the employers.

This study provides an important feedback for the policy makers in the design/review of curriculum for real estate education towards enhancing employability of the graduates. This study also serves as the research blueprint in giving attention to assessment of soft skills among real estate employees in Nigerian real estate industry.

Led by the rapid advancement of information technology in engineering, business and creative industries, the emergence of new technology such as virtual reality (VR) and its use in education and practices are clearly observed. Although widely spread in industry practices, technology-led innovation is applied rather slowly in the tertiary real estate education. This paper examines the integrative effect of VR technology in a real estate course.

This study adopts a case study approach. Using an experimental course design and delivery in a business school real estate programme from Hong Kong, this paper shows the design, development and implementation of an innovative teaching model with VR being integrated. A survey was conducted to gain feedback information from participating students towards teaching innovation. It identifies the role and values of adopting VR technology in real estate education as pedagogical tool.

A new teaching model integrated with VR technology to deliver a real estate course has demonstrated its ability and potential to assist the development and enhancement of student's sense of value and place, as well as improving communicative efficiency of property investigation and the analysis of trade process. Findings from the study have implications for future global real estate industry practice and education.

The critical role of information technology to revolutionise the global economy and its real estate sector is apparent. Few studies have inquired about attempts and experience of integrating VR technology in real estate education towards direct link to industry practice. This paper is a major attempt to bring attention to this important concern.