Industry expectation of Australian property higher education programs Kathryn Robson

Background to Property education in Australia Originally a TAFE program and moved to being a degree in the 1970s. For thirty years the backbone of Property Higher Education was the Work Experience component. As the API accredits all 10 undergraduate programs at Australian Public Universities they have certain educational requirements. Most, if not all of the audience completed a formal Work Experience component. RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 2

What is the current situation for Property education There are 10 public universities offering HE Property programs: In Victoria, RMIT and Deakin, Melb Uni offers Post Grad. In NSW, UTS and UWS, Newcastle, Post Grad. In Queensland there are CQU, UQ, QUT and USC and Bond which is a private uni. There is UniSA in South Australia and Curtin in WA. The programs are currently of differing length to complete and still have elements of Work Experience. RMIT University 2014 PCPM 3

How is it going to change and why? The Bradley Report (2009) recommended we follow the Bologna model for Higher education and have three year undergraduate degrees and two year post graduate degrees. Nine of the universities offering Property programs have moved to three years. RMIT is offering a four years honours program. Work Experience has become electives and/or a week of experience a year. Why? The numbers are too high, too many students. RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 4

Methodology Initially six interviews were conducted with property industry leaders. A questionnaire was then designed using the online Qualtrics system. This was ed to 460 industry leaders and 95 of them responded. Being almost a 20% response rate. Although not a significant number of responses they do show a pattern of similarity. RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 5

Industry findings 94% of respondents favoured formal work experience and many of these respondents came through that system. This group overwhelmingly supported WIL and practical field trips and case studies. Industry leaders – Six interviews were completed and comments ranged from graduates are enthusiastic and overall they have exceeded expectations, but often they get bored quickly and want to move up the ladder too quickly. From the questionnaire: 70% stated that they expected graduates to have a good property knowledge base and 30% expected them to be enthusiastic and eager to learn. Other things such as loyalty, computer knowledge and being willing to listen were mentioned, but all employers mentioned one of the first two as well. RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 6

Findings continued When asked how they performed 45% said quite well and 50% said they performed badly. When asked the best things about recent graduates, enthusiasm, a good attitude and keen to learn were mentioned by 80% of respondents and a further 20% praised their technical skills. When asked the worst things about their graduates, 45% said they lacked basic property skills and 25% said that they were easily distracted. They gave a very clear indication that the majority of the respondents were not impressed with the lack of practical application in the courses and suggested more case studies, problem solving, site visits, a major project tying everything together and always the comments on the usefulness of work experience. RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 7

Discussion Many employers were unhappy that the previous Work Experience programs, where students worked for up to three days a week in industry during their final year, were now no longer being offered. They felt the beauty of this program had been because the salary was low there was more incentive to spend time training the students. Now that work placements are often of a very short duration, or the students have none at all, they finish as graduates, expecting a graduate salary, with little or no knowledge of how the property industry operates. This support of formal work experience supports the evidence found in the literature. RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 8

Conclusions Although industry appears to be dissatisfied with property graduates, the Australian universities are seeking increased numbers of students and are moving away from the practical components of property education that industry values. Do we need to reintroduce substantial Work Experience into Property education across Australia and if so can industry sustain the increasing student numbers. Should property education be a mix of theory and industry placement? Is the industry going to be swamped with graduates? RMIT University©yyyy School/Department/Area 9