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How real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment

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How real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment

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Content 1
How Real Estate Programs Respond
to the Rapidly Changing External Environment
by
Johnny Din
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
August 2024

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© Copyright by Johnny Din 2024
All Rights Reserved

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The Committee for Johnny Din certifies the approval of this Dissertation:
Tracy Poon Tambascia, Committee Chair
Kimberly Hirabayashi
Helena Seli
Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California 2024

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DEDICATION
I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, William Shi-Wei Din and Eileen Kuei-Fang
Sung, who have always encouraged my education, despite giving up their dreams for a higher
calling. The church sent my parents, who are Christian missionary workers, from Taiwan to the
United States in the early 1990s. I was eight years old and did not know a word of English. I
had to start all over again. I quickly realized, it was the beginning of a new life, full of
opportunities, and the door to all those opportunities was through education. Thank you, mom
and dad, for teaching me and giving me the pathway to become the person that I am today.
Thank you for your love and your care, and I hope that I make you proud. I thank God for
everything that He has done. Praise the Lord!

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, I would like to thank all my professors at USC, especially my chair Dr. Tracy
Tambascia, for guiding me through this doctoral dissertation. Second, I would like to thank all
my interview participants, who generously spent time with me to share your insights to
contribute to a topic that we all care about. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends and family,
especially Daniel Paley, Benjamin Din, and Lauren Din, who supported me throughout this
meaningful journey. Thank you all for being there for me every step of the way!

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ABSTRACT
As a professional study, real estate programs must keep up with the constantly changing
real estate profession. The purpose of this study was to answer the research question: How do
real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment? This qualitative
study was conducted through interviews of administrators and professors in master’s in real
estate programs in the United States. There were four themes that emerged from the interview
data: the curriculum of real estate programs, the resources available to real estate programs, the
role of practitioner faculty in real estate programs, and the engagement with key stakeholders.
Under the lens of the evolutionary framework, these elements were found to be important for the
real estate programs to adapt to change: being proactive, broadly engaging organizational
stakeholders, creating nimble structures, and becoming entrepreneurial. In conclusion, four
recommendations for real estate programs were made to answer the research question: focus on
key evolutionary change elements in curriculum; constantly increasing resources in real estate
program; focus on practitioner faculty support; and engage and strengthen communication with
related stakeholders to benefit student learning and professional development.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication 4
Acknowledgements 5
Abstract 6
Table of Contents 7
List of Tables 10
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 11
Real Estate Education in the United States 11
Statement of the Problem 14
Purpose of the Study 14
Significance of the Study 16
Definitions 16
Organization 17
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 18
Graduation Education in the United States 19
Program Types 20
Reasons for Enrolling in Professional Graduate Programs 20
Overview of Real Estate Education 21
History of Real Estate Education 21
Degree Programs 22
Nondegree Programs 23
Goal of Real Estate Education 24
Real Estate Curricuum in the US 25
Challenge in Current Curriculum 26
Andragogy and Teaching Practice 28
Role of Adjunct Faculty in Real Estate Programs 29
Traditional Learning 30
Experiential Learning 31
Evolutionary Framework for Change 33
Conclusion 35
CHAPTER THREE: METHODS 36
Organization Overview 36
Population 37
Data Collection and Instrumentation 38
Recruitment, Sampling and Criteria for Interviews 39

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Interview Criteria 1: Academic Experience 40
Interview Criteria 2: Industry Experience 40
Interview Criteria 3: Active Stakeholder in Real Estate Education 40
Interview Criteria 4: Master’s Programs in the United States 40
Interview Criteria 5: English Speaker 41
Interviews 41
Data Analysis 42
Credibility and Trustworthiness 43
Ethics 43
Role of Researcher 44
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF DATA FINDINGS 46
Overview of Participants 46
Presentation of Findings 48
Theme 1: Curriculum of Real Estate Programs 48
Flexibility of Real Estate Curriculum 49
Academic Freedom in Curriculum 50
Nimble and Entrepreneural Curriculum 51
Experiential Learning in Curriculum 52
Foundational Coursework for Younger Demographic 53
Achieving STEM Designation in Curriculum 54
Theme 2: The Resources Available to Real Estate Programs 55
Multidisciplinary Structure 56
Access to Industry Resources 56
Placement of Real Estate Program within the University 58
Theme 3: The Role of Practitioner Faculty in Real Estate Programs 61
Real Estate Education Based on Professional Practice 61
Role of Practitioner Faculty in Real Estate Programs 61
Challenges with Practitioner Faculty 64
Theme 4: Engagement with Key Stakeholders to Keep Up with the Changing Industry 65
Alumni 66
Industry Advisory Board 66
Employers 67
Conclusion 67
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE 69
Discussion of Findings 69
Being Proactive 70

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Broadly Engaging Organizational Stakeholders 71
Creating Nimble Structures 73
Becoming Entrepreneural 73
Recommendations for Practice 74
Recommendation 1: Focus on Key Evolutionary Change Elements in Curriculum 74
Recommendation 2: Constantly Increasing Resources in Real Estate Program 76
Recommendation 3: Focus on Practitioner Faculty Support 77
Recommendation 4: Engage and Strenghten Communication with Related Stakeholders 78
Limitations and Delimitations 80
Recommendations for Future Research 82
Conclusion 83
REFERENCES 84
APPENDIX A: Information Sheet 91
APPENDIX B: Recruitment Email 93
APPENDIX C: Interview Protocol 94

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Select List of Master’s in Real Estate Programs in the United States 12
Table 2: Real Estate Program Major Areas 13
Table 3: 11 Themes of Top Real Estate Programs – Administrator and Faculty Ranking 24
Table 4: Pedagogical and Andragogical Differences 28
Table 5: Pedagogical and Andragogical Learning Considerations 29
Table 6: Real Estate Faculty with Doctorate Degrees 30
Table 7: Evolutionary Change School of Thought 34
Table 8: Evolutionary Change Characteristics 34
Table 9: Select Sample of Targeted Real Estate Programs in Study 37
Table 10: Interview Participants 47

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Higher education has long been viewed as the ticket to the middle class. For many
individuals, it served as an important step up the socioeconomic ladder, and for many groups, it
served as a solution to inequality and disparity. However, the spiraling cost of college and the
generalist nature of undergraduate curriculum have led some to worry that higher education has
become a weaker social engine than it once was. As a result, students with bachelor’s degrees
have pursued master’s programs as well (US Census, 2021). While traditional undergraduate
education can impart knowledge based on a broad curriculum, professional education at the
graduate level must prepare students for rapid changes in industries. As such, graduate
professional education programs and curriculum must be updated regularly. For example, real
estate has become a popular field of study based on the increased demand for real estate
professionals. Despite the growing number of students graduating from real estate master’s
programs each year, real estate employers have found that candidates are not prepared and lack
commercial awareness of the industry (Hoxley, 2011).
Real Estate Education in the United States
According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, postgraduate
education enrollment in the United States has increased significantly (NCES, 2023).
Enrollments included both domestic and international students, with international student
enrollments more than doubled over the last 40 years (Allum, 2014). Among both domestic and
international students, higher education is still viewed as a pathway to improve career status and
financial stability. In the real estate sector specifically, the demand for trained real estate
professionals continued to rise due to the ever-growing real estate industry. Table 1 below is a

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list of some of the master’s in real estate programs in the United States and their key metrics
based on online research of real estate programs.
Table 1
Select List of Master’s in Real Estate Programs in the United States
Sample of Real Estate Master's Programs in the U.S.
School
Degree
Offered
Years to
Complete
Unit
Hours
Years in
Operation
Columbia University MSRED 1 yr 36 Units 39
Cornell University MPS-RE 2 yr 62 Units 27
Baruch College MSRE 1.5yr / 2 yrs 34.5 Units 16
Fordham University MSRE/MSRED 1 yr / 2 yrs 36 Units 7
Harvard University MRE 1 yr 64 Units 0
Johns Hopkins University MSREI 1 yr / 2 yrs 36 Units 32
Massachusetts Institute of Technology MSRED 1 yr 60 Units 40
New York University MSRE/MSRED 1 yr / 2.5 yrs 36 Units 56
University of Southern California MRED 11 mos / 2 yrs 44 Units 37
Georgetown University MRE 1yr / 2 yrs 33 Units 13
Arizona State University MRED 9 mos 36 Units NA
Auburn University MRED 2 yrs 39 Units 13
Florida International University MSIRE 1 yr 30 Units NA
Iowa State University MRED 21 mos 30 Units 4
Texas A&M University MRE 16 mos 36 Units 36
Tulane University MSRED 1 yr / 2 yrs 40 Units 12
University at Buffalo MSRED 1.5 yrs 48 Units 54
University of Maryland MRED 1 yr / 3 yrs 36 Units 17
University of Maimi MRED+U 1 yr 36 Units 15
University of Wisconsin Madison MSRE 1 yr 30 Units 4
Pennsylvania State University MRE 9 mos 30 Units NA
University of Denver MRE 1 yr / 18 mos 48 Units 26
Note. This table was referenced from online research of real estate programs.
Note. This table was referenced from online research of real estate programs.
There are numerous real estate programs in the United States at the master’s level. The
programs are housed within various schools, including business schools that offer real estate
concentrations focused on finance and investments as part of a master’s degree in business. In

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addition to programs focused on finance and investments, the multidisciplinary programs also
included coursework in construction, design, and numerous specialized electives related to the
overall real estate development process as part of a master’s degree in real estate. Although real
estate programs offered a rich diversity of coursework and similar offerings, there was no
accrediting authority, non-accredited approval bodies, or standardized curriculum across all
programs. Table 2 shows major subject areas currently offered by U.S. real estate programs.
Table 2
Real Estate Program Major Areas
Note. This table was referenced from McGrath et al. (2020).
Today, graduate students in real estate come from both real estate and non-real estate
backgrounds. Among those with a real estate background, experiences differ greatly as real
estate is broad and the specializations in real estate require very different hard and soft skills. As
a result, it is important that curriculum impart basic real estate knowledge from various facets of
real estate. However, research has shown that real estate education needs to incorporate more
experiential learning beyond the traditional learning method of simply imparting knowledge. It
should include fieldwork and activities outside of the classroom (Lattuca & Stark, 2011). In
addition to fundamental courses on real estate finance and principles, programs have adapted to
Real Estate Programs Major Areas
Real Estate
Development
Strategies
Entitlements Market Studies
and Feasibility
Design
and Planning
Financing
and Investment
Land Use Architecture Economics
Zoning Urban Economics Building Typology Finance
Urban Development Underwriting Products and Sys Capital Markets
Real Estate Law Feasibility Urban Design Investments
Public Policy Market Analysis Sustainability Transactions
Urban Politics Urban Planning
Note. This table was referenced from McGrath et al. (2020).
Major
Academic
Education
Subjects

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include some experiential learning through study trips, internships, case competitions, and guest
speakers who present real world projects. Despite the effort to integrate experiential learning of
real estate in some programs, more work is needed to improve and innovate real estate education.
Statement of the Problem
Population growth, a housing crisis, and a drastic, pandemic-induced shift in how people
work and live demands not only more real estate professionals but more who can think creatively
and critically about the field and its challenges and who are prepared to satisfy the needs of
employers upon graduation. Master’s programs in real estate have emerged to meet the demand
for real estate professionals. These real estate professionals are not real estate agents who buy
and sell property, but those involved in the overall real estate process, including designers,
builders, financiers, investors, and developers. It should be noted that real estate agents are not
required to have a bachelor’s or master’s level real estate degree; they can obtain their licenses
by taking non-degree courses and passing a licensing test (Kaplan Real Estate Education, 2023).
Today, researchers have found that real estate educators struggle to fully prepare their
students for the real world (Saginor et al., 2020). Still, the industry continues to demand real
estate professionals and, thus, depends on the programs to produce highly trained graduates who
meet the needs of industry. This study examined how real estate programs have responded to
change and contributed to solving the problem of real estate programs not responding to change
and meeting the demands of the real estate industry.
Purpose of the Study
The early 2020s saw a global health pandemic, a drop in interest rates and an infusion of
cash to sustain the economy, and a spike in interest rates to combat inflation, resulting in an
unpredictable economy likely headed into a recession (World Bank Group, 2022). Additionally,

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the Covid-19 pandemic changed the way people live and work, with an increased acceptance of
work-from-home policies, decreasing the need for office space and depressing office values
(WSP, 2023). These events directly influenced the real estate market and property values.
According to joint research by the New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business and
Columbia University Graduate School of Business, office buildings in the United States were
projected to decline 28%, or $500 billion in value, due to remote work (Nusbaum, 2022).
Traditional real estate education has had a difficult time keeping up with such rapid changes.
Therefore, it is crucial to develop a versatile curriculum that can respond to the changing real
estate industry.
The purpose of this study was to answer the research question: How do real estate
programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment? The real estate programs not
only need to impart foundational real estate knowledge, but also need to help students stay active
with ongoing trends and changes in the industry. As demand for real estate education rises,
academic programs also need to actively enhance their curriculum to provide top-quality courses
and prepare graduates for the professional world.
This qualitative study included interviews with expert stakeholders in real estate master’s
programs. The two stakeholder groups in this study were administrators and faculty members in
the real estate programs. The interviews were conducted with a set of open-ended questions
designed to deepen the discussion and answer the research question.
The theoretical framework in this study focused on the evolutionary theory of change as
an analytical tool, which described the way organizational change occurs due to the external
environment and explained that stakeholders need to be aligned so they can see the importance
for making change (Kezar, 2018). The theory also mentioned that organizations need to be

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nimble and entrepreneurial, so that small adjustments could be made, which will lead to bigger
change. The study answered the following research question: How do real estate programs
respond to the rapidly changing external environment?
Significance of the Study
Due to the increased demand for real estate programs to train real estate professionals,
and the lack of a standardized curriculum across graduate real estate programs, this study is
significant as it provided recommendations that can be implemented across programs.
The study has the potential to help administrators evaluate their programs and set up an
infrastructure to implement new or improve existing offerings aligned with the current real estate
market. As the need for new programs continues to increase, this study can also help
administrators ensure that all their offerings match the standards of top-quality programs, the
expectations of students, and the needs of the real estate industry.
The study can also assist current real estate faculty members by giving them different
perspectives from other faculty members. Most real estate programs are taught by adjunct
faculty who have a wealth of real-world industry experience but who lack formal training and
experience in teaching (McGrath, 2020), so recommendations will be helpful for both existing
and new faculty.
Definitions
Below are definitions of words or phrases that are specific to this study:
Adjunct Professor: professional or practitioner professor.
Andragogy: methods of teaching adult learners.
Compound Annual Growth Rate: the average year over year growth rate.
Faculty: includes both full-time and part-time educators in the real estate programs.

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Master’s in Real Estate: includes all of the master’s level real estate-focused degrees, such as
the master’s in real estate development. It does not include a concentration in real estate under
other non-real estate degrees, such as a real estate concentration under a master’s in business
administration degree.
Pedagogy: methods of teaching younger learners.
Real Estate Education: real estate education in this study refers to all real estate academic
offerings in the United States.
Real Estate Programs: real estate programs in this study refers to master’s in real estate
programs in the United States.
Administrators: includes director and associate director level administrators in real estate
programs.
Organization
This chapter highlights the state of real estate education in the United States and explains
the study’s goal to contribute to improving real estate curriculum’s response to the external
environment, so that students will be prepared for the real estate industry. This paper also
reviews the existing literature and explains the study’s research methodology, including
participant sample, interview process, and data collection and analysis. After the presentation of
the results and findings of the study, it will discuss solutions and implementation
recommendations for a clear path to improving real estate curriculum.

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CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The real estate market is multifaceted. It includes, among other things, buying and
selling, financing, and development of properties. The market goes through up and down cycles,
but it is also resilient and successful real estate owners and operators recover quickly from
difficult conditions. The industry is constantly changing, with new players, trends, and strategies
arising depending on market conditions and opportunities. Practitioners in the field include
investors, developers, bankers, architects, engineers, general contractors, and brokers. The
industry is multidisciplinary in nature and requires a variety of expertise. Under the lens of the
evolutionary change framework, making positive change is a team effort and requires a proactive
approach to respond quickly in a changing environment (Kezar, 2018).
Educational programs for training practitioners differ from traditional, one-directional
modes of learning that seek to impart knowledge. In addition to knowledge-based instruction,
students enrolled in professional studies also need real world experience and ongoing education
to keep up with the dynamic profession. As the field changes, the industry must be able to
depend on educational institutions to prepare students to adapt to new rules and practices. Due
to the increasing cost of graduate schools, value-conscious students know that a mere transfer of
knowledge is inadequate. For these students, employability after graduation becomes a
motivating factor in their pursuit of real-world skills (McGrath, 2020). To accomplish this,
institutions need to maintain a relevant curriculum and have the most effective teaching methods
to carry it out.
Several industries use a licensure and continuing education system to ensure
professionals are up to date with their respective practices. These professions include lawyers,
teachers, accountants, engineers, pilots, physicians, nurses, psychologists, architects, and

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pharmacists (College Cliffs, 2022). There are also licensed professions within the field of real
estate. A real estate salesperson is a licensed individual who facilitates the purchase and sale of
property on behalf of clients. To obtain a real estate license in the State of New York, for
example, a salesperson needs to successfully complete 77 hours of qualifying real estate
education courses and pass the licensing test. In addition, salespersons need to complete 22.5
hours of approved continuing education, from qualified courses and activities, for each renewal
cycle to maintain the license (New York State, 2023). These continuing education requirements
are an example of how the Department of State in New York prepares its real estate licensees to
stay updated on changes in the real estate transactions market. However, licensing is only a
requirement for some roles in the real estate industry, and not all.
This study focused on master’s in real estate programs, which include the whole real
estate investment and development process from acquiring real estate to financing, developing,
and selling real estate. In the study of real estate, certain professionals require licenses such as
real estate salespersons, architects, engineers, and contractors, while others do not such as real
estate investors and developers. Therefore, designing programs in the study of real estate and
preparing real estate professionals presents complications in terms of consistency.
This chapter reviews the research literature related to the topic of real estate education,
starting with graduate education in the United States, continuing with real estate education and
curriculum, and ending with andragogy and effective teaching practices.
Graduate Education in the United States
Graduate and professional education in the United States plays a significant role in social
stratification and reducing inequality (Posselt & Grodsky, 2017). According to NCES data, the
number of postbaccalaureate degree holders continued to increase in recent years, with

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enrollment among graduate and professional degrees increased from 2.16 to 3.14 million
students between 2000 to 2020, an approximately 46% increase (NCES, 2021). Graduate
education is an important institution that services a significant population and would benefit
from continuous evaluation and improvement.
Program Types
Postbaccalaureate education in the United States includes master’s and doctoral
programs, as well as professional doctoral programs such as those in the law and medical fields.
According to NCES data, master’s degrees earned grew from 235,564 in 1971 to 866,894 in
2021, a 268% increase, representing a 3% compound annual growth rate. Doctoral degrees
earned grew from 64,998 in 1971 to 194,059 in 2021, a 299% increase, representing a 2%
compound annual growth rate (NCES, 2023). The prestige of an education in the United States
has also increased the enrollment of international doctoral students, a number which more than
doubled over the last 40 years (Allum, 2014). This increase in doctoral students has also
contributed to the increased enrollment of postgraduate degrees overall.
Reasons for Enrolling in Professional Graduate Programs
Millions of students continue to pursue graduate education after completing their
bachelor’s degrees, and it is no surprise given that a graduate degree translates to higher income
and a better quality of life (Council of Graduate Schools, 2018). Those with a higher education
often contribute more to society, earn higher wages, and have children who understand the value
of and pursue a higher education (Baum, Ma, & Payea, 2010). In addition, many specialized
professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and university professors, all require a postgraduate degree
(Morelon-Quainoo et al., 2009).

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According to the Education Data Initiative, Americans who earn a master’s degree or
higher increase their employability by a little less than 3% (Hanson, 2021). While the overall
data may not seem compelling, it is important to note that it varies greatly by profession, prior
work experience, and school ranking (Koda & Yuki, 2013). According to a Career Outlook
publication by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the wage premium for master’s
degree holders in business saw the highest gain at 89% for financial services professionals, with
real estate master’s degree holders at a 36% premium (Torpey & Terrell, 2015). The data shows
that many professions still benefit from a postgraduate degree. In addition to wage premium,
many graduate students choose to enroll in a professional graduate program to make a career
change into another field, change roles, or advance within their existing expertise.
Overview of Real Estate Education
The real estate industry is growing, and the profession is projected to expand as well,
leading to a greater demand for real estate education. According to Grand View Research, the
global real estate market was valued at $3.81 trillion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a
compound annual growth rate of 5.2% from 2022 to 2030, primarily due to population growth
and the need for more residential and commercial space (Grand View Research, 2022). As a
result, many real estate graduate programs have emerged over the years because the supply of
real estate professionals has not kept up with the demand for real estate talent (McGrath, 2020).
History of Real Estate Education
In the early days of the United States, British settlers came to the New England region to
pursue freehold land because land transfer was free (Kanayama, 1984), a custom in the region
before the declaration of independence in 1776 providing a certificate of transfer (Davies, 1958).
As a result, the question of land transfer was studied in the late 1870s and the earlier real estate

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courses centered around land and eventually Land Economics (Vaughn, 1995). By the early
1900s, universities offered real estate courses through the Wharton School at the University of
Pennsylvania, the School of Commerce at NYU, and the School of Economics at the University
of Pittsburgh (Nourse, 1995). Moreover, the postwar return to peaceful life in the 1960s saw an
increased demand in real estate qualifications, and real estate education became a meaningful
topic of discussion. It was also during this time that real estate education in universities took on
two definite approaches: the multidisciplinary approach and financial management approach
(McFarland & Nguyen, 2010).
Degree Programs
Today, degree programs are separated by the multidisciplinary and the financial
management approaches. The multidisciplinary approach generally offers a master’s in real
estate degree, and the financial management approach generally offers a real estate concentration
within a master’s in business administration degree.
Real estate programs with a multidisciplinary approach are housed in various schools
outside of business schools, such as in an architecture school, in the case of Columbia
University’s Master of Science in Real Estate Development program (Columbia Graduate School
of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation [GSAPP], 2023). Real estate programs can also be
found in public policy schools, as is the case with the University of Southern California’s (USC)
Master of Real Estate program (USC Price, 2023). Other schools that house multidisciplinary
programs are in schools of professional studies, schools of design, and others. Moreover, real
estate concentrations focused on financial management are housed in business schools. One of
the most popular real estate programs among business schools is the real estate concentration at
the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School, 2023). These two

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paths, multidisciplinary and financial management, are what is most common today in
universities.
Nondegree Programs
There are also numerous nondegree programs in real estate, both private and within
universities. Many universities, such as the NYU’s School of Professional Studies (SPS) and
Fordham University’s School of Professional Studies, offer single classes and certificate
programs in the major subject areas listed in Table 2. The offerings are focused on single-course
or single category areas, and, occasionally, it could lead to a certificate or a degree if enough
qualified courses are taken. At NYU, these courses include commercial property management,
commercial real estate lending, real estate asset management, real estate data analytics, real
estate development, real estate finance (finance, modeling, and investment), real estate personal
investment workshops, residential property management, and licensing and continuing education
for real estate salespersons (NYU SPS, 2023).
Among the nondegree courses offered, the most common is the real estate salesperson
licensing course. During the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, more than 156,000 people became
real estate salespersons in the U.S., almost 60% more than the two years before (Jackson, 2022).
Many became real estate agents due to the low barriers to entry and the flexibility it provides as
most agents set their own schedules and only work part-time. The result of this, however, is that
many are inexperienced and struggle, and as little as 10% of the agents survive in the field to
earn a full-time salary (Jackson, 2022). This study did not focus on real estate licensing because
buying and selling real estate is only one component of the overall real estate business, and real
estate master’s programs provide a more comprehensive real estate education.

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Goal of Real Estate Education
The most immediate goal of a graduate degree in real estate is to help students find
employment, whether a new job or a more senior role in the field. Those on the entrepreneurship
track will look to develop expertise in areas that they are lacking and use the degree to build
credibility. The goal upon graduation is employment, whether job-seeking or entrepreneurial.
Graduate students commonly look for a program with course content that is relevant to their
personal and career aspirations (Hardre & Pan, 2017). Most graduate students in real estate
programs look to break into the real estate profession, move to another segment of the real estate
business, or advance in their current roles by getting a more comprehensive education in real
estate. Therefore, a good real estate program prepares students with the skills necessary to
advance professionally.
Table 3
11 Themes of Top Real Estate Programs – Administrator and Faculty Ranking
Themes
1 Graduate curriculum
2 Combination of theory and practice
3 Faculty of scholars who understand the real estate business
4 Research and publications
5 Industry ties
6 Conferences and seminars
7 Mentors
8 Career opportunities
9 University support and connections
10 Collaboration and alliances with other educational institutions
11 Core competencies
Note. This was referenced from Weinstein & Worzala (2008).
Note. This include programs that were full-time and granted master's in real estate degrees.
To understand the proper skills for real estate, it is important to understand what real
estate employers look for in an ideal candidate. Weinstein and Worzala (2008) interviewed

25
administrators and faculty from top real estate programs in the United States and found 11
themes that top graduate programs should employ to develop strong candidates. The current
study further explored the research of the 11 themes. Undoubtedly, these themes are all arguably
related to curriculum, which was the focus in this study. The themes are listed in Table 3.
Real Estate Education Curriculum in the US
Master’s programs in real estate, such as the one in the Schack Institute of Real Estate at
NYU, are often separated into master’s degrees in real estate and real estate development. These
programs have students enroll in core courses such as real estate finance, corporate finance,
economics, market analysis, the development process, law, and capital markets. Then, students
choose their concentrations, such as real estate finance and investment, and management in the
master’s in real estate degree; and global real estate, sustainable real estate, and the business of
real estate concentrations in the master’s in real estate development degree (NYU Schack, 2023).
Other master’s programs do not have any concentrations and host all the subject areas under one
umbrella. The programs also complement coursework with real estate internships, local real
estate project and office visits, and international real estate trips.
While some real estate programs have similar offerings, not all of them look the same.
Galuppo and Worzala (2004) found lack of agreement among program administrators on whether
there should be common course offerings in real estate master programs. At Columbia
University, for example, the master’s degree is in real estate development is housed under the
architecture school, giving it a more designed-focused reputation. Today, a medical doctor can
obtain a medical degree only at a medical school. However, a real estate master’s student, due to
the subject’s multidisciplinary nature, can get a master’s in real estate from an architecture
school, a public policy school, a school of professional studies, or others. In some instances,

26
multiple real estate master programs were available within one university (McGrath, 2020). In
addition, real estate programs do not have a common accrediting body. As a result, programs
have different emphases and offerings despite having the same master’s degree in name. This
confusion could be a challenge for students applying to the programs, and for employers trying
to navigate where to recruit students from and what competencies the students have.
Another finding to note is that there are no definitive research centers among the real
estate programs. There is no authority to conduct meaningful real estate research, and research is
typically done on a case-by-case basis without continuity (McGrath, 2020). It is a challenge to
develop an effective real estate curriculum without knowing the key topics that are important and
most relevant at any given time in the real estate market.
Challenges in Current Curriculum
Studies have shown that employers across industries do not believe that a traditional
education fully prepares students for their careers, as only one in three hiring firms responding to
a survey believed academic institutions properly prepared students for their jobs (Mulgan et al.,
2016). The Association of American Colleges and Universities also reported that employers do
not think higher education is providing fundamental skills to be successful in the workplace,
such as applied knowledge, critical thinking, and communication skills (Hart Research
Associates, 2015). A McKinsey & Company survey across nine countries showed 43% of
employers reported that they could not find qualified workers, suggesting a shortfall in skilled
workers globally (Mourshed, 2012).
In the real estate industry, employers have also seen similar trends of preparedness and
felt that candidates lacked commercial awareness and skills required for success (Hoxley, 2011).
Given the wide range of real estate knowledge and skills, universities cannot be expected to

27
prepare students to be experts in all facets of the real estate industry, as these graduate programs
include real estate brokerage, management, development, finance, and investment (Kim, 2018),
all of which are dissimilar and require different skillsets. For example, a real estate finance
professional needs to be good at numbers and work on a computer, while a real estate
salesperson needs to have good people skills for interfacing externally with clients. The amount
of information among the various areas of expertise that needs to be covered in a real estate
curriculum also makes it challenging.
Another challenge in the curriculum is faculty expertise, as most faculty are adjunct
professors. This creates inconsistency in terms of program quality, with programs in cities with
a more active real estate market offering better faculty resources. It also becomes problematic
when course offerings are driven by faculty willingness and availability (Galuppo & Worzala,
2004). With an absence of adequate faculty, the real estate education community struggles to
prepare its students, even as the profession changes at a faster pace than the curriculum can keep
up with (Saginor et al., 2020)
Lastly, due to the interactive nature of the real estate business, some students lack soft
skills (Ayodele et al., 2021), which the curriculum needs to help develop. In a survey of human
resources managers on real estate graduates’ employability, the managers emphasized the need
for soft skills above technical knowledge (Poon, 2012). The soft skills identified by the survey
included writing skills, communication skills, presentation skills, client engagement, and
professionalism. Real estate is a business that requires a lot of communication skills and having
strong soft skills is a necessary and important competency. Programs lacking sufficient
interaction with professional educators and industry will suffer from the lack of opportunities to
develop soft skills.

28
Andragogy and Teaching Practice
Andragogy is the method of teaching adult learners, whereas pedagogy is focused on the
method of teaching younger learners. The field of andragogy was developed based on the belief
that teaching adult learners is different from traditional learning (Knowles, 1980). Adult
students take on meaningful opportunity cost to go to graduate school and are motivated to learn
with a clear goal to improve themselves through education. Moreover, many come with prior
work experience which allows an enriched learning environment, having the ability to solve
problems with multiple perspectives. Graduate students in real estate programs are the same and
know why they are in school and have a clear goal of what they want to do after graduation.
Malcolm Knowles describes the key differences in Table 4 (Knowles, 1980).
Table 4
Pedagogical and Andragogical Differences
Adult Learning
Adults need to know the reason for learning something
Adults use prior experiences as their foundation for future learning
Adults need decision-making power in their education,
Adults are motivated to learn subjects that are most directly relevant to their work,
Adult learning is driven by solving problems rather than covering content, and
Adult learning is driven more by internal motivation than external motivation
Note. This was referenced from Knowles (1980).
Note. This was referenced from Knowles (1980).
Andragogy also sees adults as self-directed learners and notes it is an internal process
controlled by the learner. This is in direct contrast to the pedagogical model, where teachers
know what the students need to learn and will provide them with that knowledge. Table 5 below
illustrates some of the key differences in learning considerations in andragogical and pedagogical
methods (Knowles, 1995). It is important to note that Knowles saw andragogical and
pedagogical methods as parallel, and it is up to the educator to evaluate which method is a more

29
effective teaching practice for the student. The understanding of andragogy and pedagogy is
important because graduate students are more motivated to learn for self-improvement, but the
need for knowledge is still there.
Table 5
Pedagogical and Andragogical Learning Considerations
Pedagogical and Andragogical Learning Considerations
Andragogical Pedagogical
Concept of Learner: Learner directed Teacher directed
Role of Prior Experience: Lots of experience Little experience
Readiness to Learn: Necessity to know Based on age / grade-level
Orientation to Learn: Motivated to learn Acquiring knowledge
Motivation to Learn: Grades earned Self-improvement /
promotion
Note. This was referenced from Knowles (1995).
Note. This was referenced from Knowles (1995).
Role of Adjunct Faculty in Real Estate Programs
To keep up with the changing industry, real estate courses are often taught by
practitioners and not by traditional academics because most real estate education is applied
practice. Adjunct professors are critical in preparing students professionally because full-time
professors could become disconnected with the everyday practices not long after they leave
industry to join academia (Hammond, 2018). At NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, most of
the faculty are adjunct professors who are alumni from the program, providing a wide variety of
offerings and addressing real-time issues in the industry. However, these adjunct professors lack
the theoretical and research background that one would find from traditional full-time professors
(McGrath, 2020). As a result, it is a challenge for real estate programs to meet the practical
demand for applied knowledge while keeping the intellectual rigor of a graduate level program
for students (McGrath, 2020). It is not only enough to find adjunct faculty to teach, but it is

30
necessary to also help them make the transition from being a successful professional to becoming
an effective teacher (Hammond, 2018). Table 6 below shows the ratio of professors with
academic training compared to those with professional training in a select sample of real estate
programs.
Table 6
Real Estate Faculty with Doctorate Degrees
Note. This was referenced from online research.
Traditional Learning
Traditional learning is the most common form of teaching, which includes lectures and
textbooks centered around the teacher. This is a good way of providing new knowledge and
students are evaluated based on homework and exams. In real estate, traditional learning
methods include using textbooks in subjects such as real estate finance, economics, and
accounting due to the theoretical nature of the learning materials. Despite the applied nature of
real estate, traditional learning methods are still the most common ways of teaching (McGrath,
2020). While traditional learning methods are necessary, the traditional model alone is not
sufficient for real estate students (Butler et al., 1998). Traditional methods of learning, combined
Number of Faculty with Doctorate Degrees
School Degree Instructors PHD
Other
Doctorate Ratio
Columbia University MSRED 98 5 3 8%
Fordham University MSRE/MSRED 78 1 8 12%
Harvard University MRE 43 9 4 30%
New York University MSRE/MSRED 103 2 10 12%
University of Southern California MRED 20 3 3 30%
Georgetown University MRE 43 1 5 14%
Arizona State University MRED 15 1 1 13%
Texas A&M University MRE 11 4 0 36%
University at Buffalo MSRED 10 1 0 10%
University of Maimi MRED+U 20 3 0 15%
Note. This was referenced from online research.

31
with experiential learning, would help deepen the learning experience and create a more dynamic
learning environment.
Experiential Learning
As an applied practice, it is important to recognize that, while necessary, traditional
learning methods are not enough (Lattuca & Stark, 2011). American philosopher John Dewey
described a model where students could learn applied occupational skills in a school setting
(Dewey, 1944). This includes inside classroom learning complemented with outside social
engagement. In real estate education, social engagement would include activities outside of the
classroom such as study trips, internships, case competitions, or activities on campus with guest
speakers sharing about active real estate projects and case studies.
Students have found that study trips were helpful in complementing their real estate
learning in the classroom (Hopkins, 2021). Building on Dewey’s view of progressive education,
Kolb’s experiential learning theory says that the students need not only theoretical knowledge
but also real experiences outside of the classroom. The students should observe, reflect, and
think critically. In real estate education, study trips in the field would include project tours
domestically and internationally across all asset classes such as sustainable office buildings, fivestar hotels, and luxury condominiums. At Columbia University’s Master’s in Real Estate
Development program, the curriculum offers study trips to Europe, Asia, and South America
(Columbia GSAPP, 2023) to visit real estate investors and developers in those regions. The
students are given the opportunity to see, touch, and feel the real estate physically, providing
another dimension of learning that cannot be experienced in the classroom.
Another effective way for real estate students to connect with the real estate industry is
through internships. One of the best ways to be connected and stay up to date is to do an

32
internship with a real estate firm working on active deals. Studies have shown that it is
important for real estate programs to connect with industry through internships and find
mentorship working with experienced real estate professionals (Weinstein et al., 2007).
Internships take place during the semester part-time or during the winter or summer breaks fulltime. The intern can learn from a practitioner and apply the theories from the classroom in a live
professional setting. Internships are also a good way to secure a full-time job offer as it gives
students an opportunity to showcase their abilities.
Holding case competitions is another way to apply experiential learning. Due to the
multidisciplinary nature of real estate, case competitions are a good way of bringing active and
challenge-based learning into the learning process (McGrath, 2020). Each year, many
universities and industry groups hold case study competitions both domestically and
internationally for real estate students. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Hines Student
Competition, a collaboration with the industry group ULI and the real estate company Hines, is
held annually. In 2023, the competition was a redevelopment of a site in North Charleston,
South Carolina. There were 84 entries, evaluated by a 15-member jury, representing students
from 39 universities from the United States, Canada, and India (Fertitta, 2023). The four
finalists presented to a panel of experts across the commercial real estate industry. This
experience allowed the students to apply what they learned in the classroom to a real project and
present in a professional setting (Charles, 2016).
Lastly, inviting guest speakers on campus or meeting guest speakers off campus is
another essential learning method. Meeting real estate executives can motivate students and
enhance their interests to pursue a career in the real estate industry (Robert & Hanton, 2021).
These speakers share up-to-date industry knowledge and bring active projects into the classroom.

33
By interacting with real estate professionals, students can also connect what they learned in the
classroom with real world case studies (Burns & Chopra, 2017). Guest speakers also promote
cognitive engagement, which promotes professionalism and higher levels of learning and
achievement (Nystrand & Gamoran, 1991). In real estate education, guest speakers may include
senior executives in real estate investment and development, star architects, and celebrity brokers
selling multi-million-dollar listings.
Evolutionary Framework for Change
In How Colleges Change: Understanding, Leading, and Enacting Change, Adrianna
Kezar (2018) listed six frameworks for change. The frameworks are scientific management,
evolutionary, social cognition, cultural, political, and institutional. The evolutionary framework
for change was the most appropriate for this study. Other research has also used this theoretical
framework to answer organizational change in higher education (Baker & Baldwin, 2014). In
the evolutionary change framework, institutions face change due to unplanned factors in the
external environment that needs to be constantly addressed.
This study focused on real estate education with the goal to help real estate education
institutions improve and keep up with the quickly changing industry. Many changes are
happening in higher education, mostly due to the need to respond to outside forces (Kezar, 2018)
including social, economic, environmental, and others. Similarly, the real estate industry is also
constantly changing, and real estate programs should also be proactive in making and managing
unplanned change. Using the evolutionary change framework as an analytical tool, the study
explored ways to enhance real estate curriculum and how curriculum have responded to external
change. The table below highlights some of the thoughts related to evolutionary change, which
are explored throughout the study.

34
Table 7
Evolutionary Change School of Thought
Questions and Thoughts Answers and Solutions
Why Change Occurs External environment
Process of Change Adaptation; Slow; Gradual; Non-intentional
Outcomes of Change New structures and processes
Key Metaphor Self-producing organism
Types of Change Unplanned; External
Context of Change
Tactics
Note. This was referenced from Kezar (2018).
Systems approach with emphasis on external pressures
and interactions with internal organizations
Create infrastructure to respond to changes;
Strong steering committee; Nimble and flexible structures
Note. This was referenced from Kezar (2018).
To best face these changes, it is important to take a proactive approach and to utilize a
systems approach by broadly identifying key stakeholders that are aligned for change, creating a
nimble and adaptive structure so that decisions can be made quickly (Kezar, 2018). Gradually,
with this approach, positive changes are made to improve and achieve organizational goals.
Table 8
Evolutionary Change Characteristics
Characteristics
Being proactive
Broadly engaging organizational stakeholders
Responding strategically
Creating nimble structures
Having a clear understanding of strengths and weaknesses and creating priorities
Mapping and developing internal capacities
Becoming entrepreneurial
Organizational learning
Note. This was referenced from Kezar (2018).
Note. This was referenced from Kezar (2018).

35
Table 8 lists some characteristics of evolutionary change. The open-ended research
questions from this study applied this framework as an analytical tool and evaluated how
proactive the programs were managing change, how nimble and entrepreneurial they were to
make adjustments, and how often they engaged key stakeholders to review and implement goals
and priorities.
Conclusion
This chapter reviewed research on real estate education in the United States, starting with
a review of graduate education in the United States and narrowing down to real estate education
and its curriculum. The real estate industry is constantly changing, and the role of real estate
educators is to develop a relevant curriculum to keep up with the external environment. Such
effort will prepare students and enhance employment opportunities, which is the immediate goal
of students graduating from real estate programs. Positive change to existing curriculum and
teaching methods requires collaboration and teamwork from the stakeholders in the real estate
industry and in real estate programs.

36
CHAPTER 3: METHODS
The purpose of this study was to answer the research question: How do real estate
programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment? Ultimately, the goal of real
estate programs is to carry out the best real estate education, in order to enhance their students’
employment opportunities. This chapter gives an overview of the research methodology used to
answer the research question: How do real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing
external environment?
The goal of this chapter is to explain the study in detail as well as the thought process
behind the research methodology. The chapter also describes the population being studied,
details how the sample participants were selected and explains the process of data collection and
analysis.
Organization Overview
This study reached out to participants from more than 20 real estate programs offering a
master’s level degree in real estate. These programs offered master’s in real estate (MSRE) and
master’s in real estate development (MSRED), among others. However, programs that included
only concentrations housed within a business degree were excluded, because they lacked the
comprehensive coursework offered in all areas of the real estate business found in programs that
offer a master’s level degree in real estate.
The study concentrated on programs that were conducted in-person and had a duration of
one to two years for full-time students. The in-person criterion was crucial due to the importance
of soft skills and the applied nature of real estate. Enrollment in the programs varied, ranging
from around 30 students to around 125 students each year. Some of the universities that offered
full-time real estate programs included Columbia University, Fordham University, NYU in New

37
York City, University of Southern California, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, and others. Table 9 shows a sample of the top real estate master's programs in the
United States that were targeted and invited for this study. The criteria used in selecting the list
below required that the programs were full-time and offered a master’s level degree in real
estate. The criteria were important because students tend to be more focused in a full-time
program and the master’s in real estate degree offers the most complete set of courses for the real
estate industry.
Table 9
Select Sample of Targeted Real Estate Programs in Study
10 Real Estate Master's Programs in Research Study
Columbia University
Cornell University
Baruch College
Fordham University
University of Maimi
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
New York University
University of Southern California
Georgetown University
Note. This include programs that were full-time and granted master's in real estate degrees.
Note. This include programs that were full-time and granted master's in real estate degrees.
Population
The population for this study focused on two stakeholder groups, administrators and
faculty members in master’s level real estate programs. The first stakeholder group of
administrators shared information on what they faced managing the programs, and ways they
might address challenges or pressures from the external environment. This sample group also
had general insights from students and faculty through their mutual interactions, providing a

38
holistic perspective. Administrators in the study included directors, associate directors, and
academic directors.
The second stakeholder group, faculty members, provided perspective from those
teaching and interacting with the students. Faculty members provided an up-to-date, groundlevel perspective of what was happening in the classroom, and external factors that drove their
course content planning. Since a majority of faculty members were adjunct professors, this
stakeholder group also offered insights on industry expectations for real estate graduates. In
addition, many adjunct faculty members were themselves graduates of real estate programs.
They provided both perspectives of a student and of a graduate with respect to the usefulness of a
given curriculum and real-world application of the same following graduation. The study looked
for a sample of faculty members with diverse backgrounds, both in academia and in professional
practice, with adjunct faculty members as the majority, reflecting the ratio of academics and
professionals teaching in programs.
This qualitative study conducted interviews with respondents who agreed to participate. I
received more interview participants from New York City due to my geographical location and
ease of scheduling, but the study also looked for interview participants nationwide. The study
targeted a minimum of six participants from each of the two stakeholder groups for a total of 12
interviewees. However, I interviewed a total of 32 participants. There was no requirement for
what programs needed to be represented or how many participants were needed from each
program.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
A qualitative methodology using interviews was the most appropriate approach for this
study. The interviews gave a deeper understanding of the research topic by providing first-hand

39
perspectives from stakeholders who were actively administering and teaching in real estate
programs. The interactive nature of the interviews allowed deeper exploration of topics that
would have been difficult to ask in a survey. Through interviewing a purposeful sample, the
study revealed how the interviewees interpreted their experiences, how those experiences made
sense in context, and the meaning of their experiences, all of which afforded a deeper exploration
of the research questions (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The use of interviews also allowed me to
infer things not directly seen in surveys such as feelings, thoughts, and intentions. The interview
delved deeper into the participants’ minds and perspectives to examine how they interpreted their
own experiences (Patton, 2015). In addition, the interviews were semi-structured to allow
flexibility for the interviewee to speak freely on topic (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The interview
protocol (Appendix C) included preset questions, but interviewees were able to explore what
they wanted to focus on.
Recruitment, Sampling and Criteria for Interviews
The study started with an email to members of the two stakeholder groups, as seen in
Appendix B. I reached out to colleagues in my personal network and real estate program offices,
asking them to share the email with administrators and faculty members in real estate programs.
Through this approach, I successfully contacted 19 administrators and 13 professors for the
study.
I reviewed online profiles of those who agreed to interview to confirm I had a purposeful
sample for the in-person interviews. I reached out to over 50 individuals and completed 32
interviews. Using the snowball sampling technique, I asked interviewees if they knew anyone
else I should interview for the study. I also examined the faculty composition of the targeted real
estate programs in the study to ensure that the purposeful sample represented real estate

40
administrators and faculty members in the United States. The demographic criteria is discussed
below.
Interview Criteria 1: Academic Experience
The administrator participants had at least three years of experience as an administrator to
ensure they had some experience and were not new to the role. Position titles included dean,
director, associate director, or assistant director.
The faculty participants had at least three years of experience teaching real estate courses
to ensure they had some experience and were not new to the role. Positions included professor,
associate professor, assistant professor, lecturer, and instructor.
Interview Criteria 2: Industry Experience
The administrator participants had at least three years of administrative experience in a
real estate program. It was critical that the administrators had specific real estate administration
experience rather than general academic administrative experience.
The faculty participants had at least five years of real estate industry experience. It was
preferable if the participant also held a master’s degree in real estate.
Interview Criteria 3: Active Stakeholder in Real Estate Education
The administrators and faculty members who participated in this study were actively
involved in a master’s real estate program within the last three years to ensure their perspectives
were relevant and up-to-date.
Interview Criteria 4: Master’s Programs in the United States
The administrators and faculty members participating in this study were in the United
States as this study focused on master’s level real estate education in the United States. This is

41
important because there are different practices, rules, and regulations outside of the United
States.
Interview Criteria 5: English Speaker
The administrators and faculty members participating in this study were English speakers
because the interviews were conducted in English.
Interviews
I interviewed 32 administrators and faculty members from over 50 recruitment emails.
Due to the number of interviews, geographical location, and busyness of schedules, I interviewed
everyone via Zoom.
I started the interview by introducing myself and the purpose of the research. I also
asked if the interview could be recorded. During the interview, I took notes to write down the
interviewees’ answers to my questions and topics I wanted to follow-up on. The interviews
ranged from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. The interview was conducted in English and scheduled
for one hour, but some went longer and others were shorter. I had a list of interview questions
and overarching themes to help guide the interview. I had both general and specific questions
for each of the stakeholder groups. The interview was semi-structured to allow flexibility for the
interviewee to speak freely on topics the interviewee wanted to focus on (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016). This provided extra comfort for the interviewee and allowed them to bring up other
interesting findings that I had not considered.
The interview questions were open-ended, giving the interviewees space to talk about the
issues. Unlike some studies, the theoretical framework did not drive the interview questions but
was used as an analytical tool. The questions explored how the real estate programs faced and
managed change, and the responses were analyzed through the lens of the evolutionary change

42
framework. The interview questions were separated into three categories to help answer the
research question. First, a set of general questions introduced the topic. Second, there were two
sets of questions targeted for each stakeholder group: questions related to curriculum for the
administrators, and questions related to course content for the faculty. Lastly, I asked for closing
thoughts to give the interviewee an opportunity to provide feedback and discuss anything that
may have been missed. The study sought data to develop a deeper understanding of real estate
curriculum and course content, their relationship to external factors, and ways they could keep up
with industry changes. The interviews were purposeful conversations (Dexter, 1970) and
focused on questions related to the research study (DeMarrais, 2004).
Data Analysis
Data collection and analysis were conducted simultaneously with the interviews, and the
analysis became more intensive as more data came in (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The
interviews were recorded, with interviewee consent, and transcribed in Zoom. Zoom was an
effective application because the words could be coded and searched. I used codes with specific
or categorical words or phrases to help organize the analysis and identify themes and trends from
the interviews that were summarized in a write-up of the findings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
The codes were searched and identified with the evolutionary change framework for analysis, to
see if any of the programs were applying characteristics of the framework. Furthermore, I
looked for additional characteristics that the real estate programs were utilizing to respond to
change, not mentioned in the evolutionary change framework, that could be helpful. The goal of
the data analysis was to make sense of the data and answer the research questions (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). The study looked at how real estate programs identified with the evolutionary
change framework and found additional ways the programs managed change.

43
Credibility and Trustworthiness
As qualitative data were collected through person-to-person conversations, credibility and
trustworthiness of data was extremely important. Maxwell (2013) said that one can never
capture reality so what was captured needs to have validity. The best way to have internal
validity, or credibility, is triangulation (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Triangulation means
comparing and cross-checking data from multiple interviews from different times and places, or
following-up with the same person to make sure the data is the same and accurate. Triangulation
in this study was through data collected with the two different stakeholder groups. Moreover,
credibility could be ensured through member checks, or respondent validation (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). This occurs when the interviewee is asked to review the findings to ensure that
everything was documented and interpreted accurately to avoid any biases and
misunderstandings (Maxwell, 2013). In order to ensure credibility, I engaged extensively in the
data collection process and exceeded my interview target (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Throughout the interviews I conducted, I spent adequate time interviewing the subjects to a point
of saturation, where the responses started to be similar or repeat themselves.
Ethics
Over the course of any study, ethical issues such as privacy may arise. To carry out this
study in an ethical way, the interviewees were informed that their participation was voluntary, as
emphasized in the recruitment email (Appendix B), and that they could withdraw from the study
at any time, as they were not forced to do the study (Patton, 2015). The data collection was also
handled with ethical principles and confidentiality, as described in the Information Sheet
(Appendix A). The University of Southern California (USC) Institutional Review Board (IRB)
reviewed and approved the study to protect rights of the participants. The Belmont Report and

44
Belmont’s principles (The Belmont Report, 1979) summarized ethical principles in three parts –
respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. These principles were applied throughout this
study. In respect for persons, I made sure that the participants were willing and able to be a part
of the research and not forced or coerced into it. Second, to have beneficence and kindness to
the participants, I ensured that the research did not harm them and, perhaps, even helped them by
giving them valuable insights on the research topics. Lastly, to be fair and just, I made sure that
everyone who qualified was able to participate in the research and that the selection was not
stereotyped or biased. It was important for my study not to have a biased set of participants, but
one that represented a wide range of the sample.
Role of Researcher
Understanding the researcher’s role is another way to increase credibility (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016). It is important for the researcher to be aware of biases, dispositions, and
assumptions in the study. This information allowed the readers of the research to see how the
researcher explained the data. To see the role of the researcher is not to eliminate the
researcher’s views but to understand how a researcher’s view may have influenced the results of
the study (Maxwell, 2013).
Positionality “reflects the position that the researcher has chosen to adopt within a
research study” (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). For this research, I clearly communicated that I
have been an adjunct professor at multiple universities for many years. As a result, I may have
views on the research question based on my positionality. I also informed participants that I am
also a real estate professional as the chief executive officer of a real estate fund. My teaching
and professional experience could have influenced how I evaluated the result of the study
because of my prior views on the subject matter. To address this, I understood that my

45
positionality is unique and that it could impact the research process (Holmes, 2019). Therefore,
it is important to focus on interview data, and not my personal opinions, to present my findings
without bias. I did this by supporting all of the findings with interview data.

46
CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF DATA AND FINDINGS
This chapter presents data collected through interviews of administrators and professors
in master’s in real estate programs in the United States. It includes an overview of the
participants and a presentation of findings under the four themes that emerged from the
interviews: leadership and structure of real estate programs, the context of real estate programs,
balancing academia and industry in real estate curriculum, and engagement with key
stakeholders.
Overview of Participants
The participants were identified using the recruitment protocols described in Chapter 3. I
started by reaching out to my personal network through a pre-written recruiting email with an
attachment to introduce the study and specific requirements for participation. Those who were
qualified to participate were invited to do so. I was also introduced to some prospective
participants by contacts in my professional network. I sent more than 50 recruitment emails and
interviewed more than 30 participants. Most of the responses agreed to participate in the study
with only two choosing not to participate. The remaining either had a schedule conflict or did
not respond to my recruitment email.
The participants had collectively spent time in more than 20 master’s in real estate
programs across the United States covering the West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, and
Southeast regions of the United States. The participants represented 23 programs at Columbia
University, New York University (NYU), Fordham University, Pratt Institute, Cornell
University, Baruch College, Harvard University, University of Michigan, University of Central
Florida, University of Southern California, Johns Hopkins University, Roosevelt University,
University of Denver, University of Buffalo, Georgetown University, University of Wisconsin,
Marquette University, University of Utah, University of California Berkeley, Massachusetts

47
Institute of Technology, Pepperdine University, Portland State University, and University of
Colorado. Some interview participants represented multiple programs as they moved around
during their careers and the programs represented include where they were at the time of the
interview and where they had been before. Below is a list of interview participant roles and their
geographies at the time of their interview.
Table 10
Interview Participants
List of Interview Participants
# Pseudonym Geography Role # Pseudonym Geography Role
1 A1 Northeast Administrator 20 P1 Northeast Professor
2 A2 Northeast Administrator 21 P2 Northeast Professor
3 A3 Northeast Administrator 22 P3 Northeast Professor
4 A4 Northeast Administrator 23 P4 Northeast Professor
5 A5 Northeast Administrator 24 P5 Northeast Professor
6 A6 Northeast Administrator 25 P6 Northeast Professor
7 A7 Northeast Administrator 26 P7 Northeast Professor
8 A8 Northeast Administrator 27 P8 Northeast Professor
9 A9 Northeast Administrator 28 P9 Northeast Professor
10 A10 Southeast Administrator 29 P10 Northeast Professor
11 A11 Northeast Administrator 30 P11 West Professor
12 A12 Northeast Administrator 31 P12 Northeast Professor
13 A13 Midwest Administrator 32 P13 Northeast Professor
14 A14 Southeast Administrator
16 A15 Midwest Administrator
15 A16 West Administrator
17 A17 West Administrator
18 A18 West Administrator
19 A19 Northeast Administrator
Note. The geography represents the current location of the participant schools. The
participants represents programs, past and present, from 23 real estate programs
covering all five regions in the United States (West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast,
Southeast).
Note. The geography represents the current location of the participant schools. The participants
represents programs, past and present, from 23 real estate programs covering all five regions in
the United States (West, Southwest, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast).

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Presentation of Findings
The purpose of this study was to answer the research question: How do real estate
programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment? In recent years, the real estate
market experienced volatility with significant growth and decline, a global pandemic, and
dramatically fluctuating interest rates. All these factors affected the real estate market and the
study of real estate significantly. This study presents meaningful data to respond to the research
question: How do real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment?
Four themes emerged from the interviews: leadership and structure of real estate
programs, the context of real estate programs, balancing academia and industry in real estate
curriculum, and the engagement with key stakeholders.
Theme 1: Curriculum of Real Estate Programs
The curriculum of real estate programs was an important theme found in the data. The
real estate programs faced changes in the external environment and responded through the
curriculum. The interview participants discussed the importance of regular meetings, most
commonly on a weekly cadence for the full-time staff or quarterly for part-time faculty. They
noted that having regular conversations helped real estate program faculty and staff respond to
the changing real estate industry and created opportunities for them to be proactive in their
curriculum. One real estate professor, P3, who taught sustainability and was part of a group of
sustainability professors at different schools within the university, found communication across
disciplines to be helpful. He said,
I sit on a sustainable committee where professors from different schools get together and
we talk about curriculum. [They] meet every quarter [and] I've met with them twice now.
Everyone talks about the new classes that they're doing in the curriculum, and people

49
look for collaboration opportunities.. There are a few people from the architecture
school. There are a few people from the civil engineering school, a few people from the
mechanical engineering school. And then there's a couple art historians that are involved.
More than half of the faculty participants in this study said there could be more communication,
emphasizing the importance of communication among the faculty.
Flexibility of Real Estate Curriculum
The curriculum is the foundation of a real estate program, and the flexibility of the real
estate curriculum plays a major role in the students’ overall real estate education and experience.
All the administrators I interviewed talked about a curriculum with a set of core classes that
taught the basic subjects, complemented by electives to allow students to pursue specific
interests. One administrator described the program’s curriculum and the utilization of elective
offerings:
A4: Our curriculum has to be able to respond with respect to the economic cycle. And
this is where I think we're able to use our electives… This year, we've got an elective on
redoing or repositioning, rehabbing existing buildings, residential buildings, and redoing
office buildings as residential, because that reuse of buildings is becoming a very
important part of real estate activity. One good thing is with electives we are able to also
have external faculty, adjunct faculty teach it. And those faculty who are out there
practicing, they're the ones who are really seeing the most recent and current issues. I
really like the fact that our electives, which are flexible and can respond, are also taught
by people who are flexible and responding.
The administrators all said they found that elective courses were very effective at introducing
new topics. The electives focused on topics relevant to the current market but did not have to

50
commit to the established curriculum. The ability to use adjunct professors, as stated above, also
allowed for the flexibility in the elective offerings.
In addition to elective courses, the programs also used non-credit workshops to provide
supplemental learning for students who needed it. This was a direct response to the diversity of
students, coming from many backgrounds. One professor shared how workshops can enrich the
curriculum, especially for students who lacked professional experience:
P8: The workshops were designed to happen in the first semester… The workshops were
designed because the student body is so diverse that a lot of these folks don't have any
sort of professional experience, or don't have any architecture experience, or maybe they
were an investment banker for ten years. What the workshops are designed to do is really
just dedicate time to ramp up the student learning the basics of construction… You get a
lot more honest feedback, and people are more willing to raise their hand and ask
questions. They're willing to put themselves out there and ask a question. They normally
wouldn't because they don't want to look silly in front of their classmates.
Interview participants said that students with backgrounds in architecture, finance, construction,
and non-real estate fields were all sitting in the same classroom. This diversity made the real
estate programs strong and the class discussions rich. However, it also meant that the program
curriculum needed to bridge knowledge gaps among students.
Academic Freedom in Curriculum
Another finding related to real estate curriculum effectiveness was the importance of
academic freedom for faculty. Due to the changing industry, class content differed from year to
year. One senior administrator said that professors should have the academic freedom to alter
the course content based on the relevance of course material, provided that course learning

51
outcomes were met. He encouraged his professors “to tweak the courses based on how they're
teaching it and what they hear in the workplace. And that's academic freedom.” He noted that
he must “trust the professor to teach a class,” but as long as “they have the parameters by which
those learning goals are achieved, they can change and address it any way they want.” To foster
academic freedom, one professor stressed that classes should be topical. The real estate industry
is constantly changing, and the class content should adapt to what is relevant in the market
environment, as he explained:
P12: You know what I try to do with the class, I think it's a little bit topical to what
you're talking about. Here is I tried to keep the class topical, like, you know, because
things you know what what's interesting about real estate is… I started in 2010 and that
was coming out of the global financial crisis so what you taught in 2010 is going to be
different than what you're teaching in 2018 when the market was later in the cycle and
rates were low and everything else. There was a time in the 2015 and 2016 time period
where there's so much Chinese money flooding into New York and talking about that was
important.
Giving the faculty academic freedom and keeping courses topical were some of the ways that
study participants discussed to provide curriculum flexibility in the face of an always-changing
industry.
Nimble and Entrepreneurial Curriculum
Over half of the administrators interviewed also stressed the importance of having a
nimble and entrepreneurial curriculum, with the flexibility to make small changes to improve the
program. To keep up with the changing industry, a programs’ curriculum must be set up for

52
constant change, as described by one administrator who shared about his experience in being
nimble and entrepreneurial:
A18: You [need to] take a kind of entrepreneurial mindset to this, and so I'm always
trying to think about how do you keep the curriculum? Adopt this Kaizen approach,
which is incremental improvement. Every time we do, something has to be better. So
that's part of it. But it's also trying to keep on top of how things are changing. And
obviously the last few years have been all about change. The return to office, work from
home, and covid issues.
Another senior professor supported the importance of being nimble and entrepreneurial. In his
experience at the two different programs he was in, he conceded that, “a lot depended on the
nimbleness and the entrepreneurial spirit at the university.” In comparing two schools, he
pointed out that one of the schools was “…more entrepreneurial than most other universities so it
was easier to do things [and] it took us only 6 months to create the real estate degree, whereas it
took 25 years at [the other school].” Being nimble and entrepreneurial is extremely important for
organizations that need to adapt to change, including the real estate programs.
Experiential Learning in Curriculum
A successful curriculum is not only one that is theoretical but also one that uses real
world case studies and engages with the real estate industry. One administrator emphasized his
program’s focus on experiential learning to augment learning and increase student exposure to
real world examples:
A16: Well, a big piece of what we do is experiential learning, so we want our students to
learn from the class and be able to then see it first-hand. So we do real estate tours.
We'll have industry panels. We'll have guest speakers. We really want feel. That's an

53
important way to make the learning really rich and applied… I always ask the
development team talk about what didn't go as planned right? And so understanding that
it's not always as black and white as sometimes the textbooks lay out.
The interviewee emphasized the importance of incorporating experiential learning in real estate.
To do so, students need to apply what they have learned in the classroom in real life settings. All
of the interview participants agreed that the real estate curriculum in the classroom needed to be
complemented by applied practice outside of the classroom.
Foundational Coursework for Younger Demographic
Changing student demographics presented another context in which real estate programs
were adapting. This changing demographic was echoed by 20 of the interview participants.
Traditionally, students would work in the industry for a few years before enrolling in a master’s
in real estate program. However, as the industry became more popular, students started coming
to the programs younger, oftentimes right out of college with no prior work experience. One
administrator described the challenge that a younger, less experienced student body presented
both to programs and to the students as they entered the job market:
A17: The second challenge that we've that we've noticed, and this is related to the first is
that our student body right now is younger than it has been in the past. And by younger, I
mean there are a lot more people trying to come right out of an undergraduate program
and go right into a master’s and real estate program. We don’t require work experience,
but we value it. We're going to have more students graduating over the next two years
who don't have meaningful work experience, and they might be entering a job market,
where they will be less competitive than they would be if they had meaningful work
experience.

54
The interview data suggested that applicants have become younger and sometimes less
professionally experienced, real estate programs have started to introduce more foundational
coursework, such as courses in real estate principles, to train younger students in social skills
typically developed in a workplace environment. This lack of work experience can lead to
difficulty finding jobs upon graduation. To make up for this experience, one interview
participant said they were “more actively working with companies to pursue and create
internship programs that are better suited for younger students,” in addition to connecting career
services programs with students, “as soon as they're admitted trying to get them on the right
path.”
Achieving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Designation in Curriculum
Real estate programs have also seen a demographic shift with the growing share of
enrolled international students. Twenty-two of the participants represented programs with a
growing international student population. However, international graduates face an additional
hurdle in the job hunt: they only have one year of occupational professional training (OPT) to
work in the United States. To address this issue, several real estate programs have achieved a
STEM designation, which increases the OPT period from one year to three years. This allows
international students to become more marketable, with at least three years of work experience
after graduating. One administrator described the importance of STEM in association with
applicants below:
A14: [STEM] became super important for architecture programs and it's related to
international students. It allows international students to stay on and work for three years
or so. It was an internal process within the university, and we are happy that we got there.
We have some relationships with the university in Saudi Arabia, and we just created one

55
with one in Kuwait. That topic came up in the meetings just this past year, and they were
very pleased to see that not only architecture, but our program was STEM designated.
And they said, that was important.
Five of the real estate programs represented in this study were STEM designated. Most of the
others were looking into the designation because it was potentially more attractive for
international students. However, not everyone agreed. “We’re not a STEM program,” one
administrator said flatly. “I've actually polled students and they said, please don't become a
STEM program because it's a lot more theoretical.” The same administrator also pointed out the
need to “…go through a separate review with the state” which would require the program “to
change up the courses,” which “the students don't want.” The programs that were not pursuing
this designation either did not need it to increase enrollment or did not want the program to
become more theoretical with subjects in science, technology, engineering, and math. Based on
the quote above, the programs resisting this change wanted to operate freely and not be limited
by the requirements of a STEM designation.
Theme 2: The Resources Available to Real Estate Programs
The ability to respond to changes in the external environment was highly dependent on
the resources available to the real estate programs. The resources that shape real estate
programs, as defined in this study, included multidisciplinary structure, access to industry
resources, and the placement of the real estate program within the university. This was
important to consider because a new program may be ambitious but lack the resources from
other disciplines within the university, or from a strong alumni or faculty network. The
resources available to real estate programs is an important theme to explore as study participants
discussed advantages and disadvantages faced by their programs.

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Multidisciplinary Structure
Real estate is multidisciplinary in nature (McGrath, 2020). One administrator suggested
that it was important to leverage all the resources of the university to create a successful program
in order to respond to the rapidly changing external environment, because the study of real estate
is inclusive of many disciplines and needs to be responsive of various outside influences. For
example, a real estate program may have a real estate law class taught by a professor hired by the
real estate program. However, the university could have a top law school and the real estate
program could leverage the law faculty. One administrator spoke about a positive experience in
collaborating with another school within the university:
A14: We incorporate interdisciplinary education throughout the university. I remember
my meeting with the dean of the business school. I said, look, you've got a faculty
member teaching finance. You've got one teaching real estate law. We'd love to be able
to incorporate these into this new program, this interdisciplinary program. The
interdisciplinary connections [also] ties in with what's happening in our college of
engineering which we share construction management.
The ability to leverage university-wide resources was something that the administrators spoke
positively about, if they can carry it out successfully..
Access to Industry Resources
The real estate industry is very local, and the programs tended to leverage the local
resources in their respective geographies. These resources included speaking to practitioners,
using active case studies, and touring real estate projects. One administrator highlighted the
value of his geography, describing New York City as a “living laboratory”:

57
A19: The number one selling point for us… is the fact that we are in New York City, and
the way I market the program is that it is a living laboratory for all that’s happening… in
the very best of real estate… and trying to get the students out of the classroom into these
experiences. This week, I took 30 students to the new Amazon Headquarters on Fifth
Avenue, which was an adaptive reuse of a department store [into an office building.]
Data from this study showed that programs in larger cities had more industry resources than the
programs in medium-sized or smaller cities, simply due to a higher rate of real estate activities in
larger locales. This could also explain why New York City has more real estate programs than
other cities in the United States. Still, without the resources of a city with a large real estate
market, the programs in smaller cities found other ways to appeal to their students. One
administrator, operating in a much different context than New York City, described the benefits
found in a real estate program based in a smaller-city context:
A9: We’re just in a different context. It’s the quintessential residential campus. You
know the tree, the leaves on the ground. You know everything. It’s a small town and our
faculty are often in their office all day long. When you have a question with the faculty,
you make an office appointment, or you show up and knock on the door. They see us at
coffee shops having informal conversations. When I taught at [a larger city], we didn’t
have that because the faculty [did not come in]. Everybody’s busy in a big city.
Despite the lack of resources, data collected from the smaller city programs showed that they had
more full-time faculty who produced research and who tended to be more available to the
students.
In addition, the data from the smaller city programs showed that they overcame their
geography by bringing students on trips to bigger cities to experience the industry resources of a

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large city. Indeed, one administrator in a smaller city described ways that their program adopted
to offer benefits found in big city-programs:
A9: We rolled out two new courses that were offered at our campus in New York City,
and they were taught by practitioners in New York. We held the courses there and they
were great. These are the benefits of alums and practitioners in a major city. We are also
shifting the sequence of our courses so that [students] could free up more time in their
final semester and spend time in New York to interview and have informal conversations.
Based on interview data with small city programs, faculty and staff overcame their geography
and fewer resources by taking students on intensive study trips to have more field-based
experiences and exposure to practitioners. Some programs even had the resources to conduct
classes on satellite campuses in large cities. The smaller city programs also arranged class
schedules so students could have blocks of time to travel and take advantage of the resources in a
large city.
Placement of Real Estate Program Within the University
Another finding related to the context of real estate programs was the placement of the
real estate program within a university. In the existing environment, real estate programs were
scattered across many different schools within a university. One administrator noted, for
example, that a real estate program housed within their architecture school benefited from the
resources of the architecture faculty and included an additional emphasis on design. The leaders
of the architecture schools tended to be more creative and more willing to try new things,
reflecting the creativity and open-mindedness that architects bring to the practice of real estate
compared to more rigid-minded finance professionals. One administrator from one of the oldest

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real estate programs described the evolution of real estate programs now drawing from the
expertise of other disciplines:
A1: When I started, there were like five programs, and we were one of them. Now there
are so many real estate programs. Some are housed within… a professional study. Some
are within a business program or a hotel school… [We are] versatile… I think part of it
is because within the architecture school there are so many experimental videos and
seminars… [We] like people to try things, see if it works.
The interviews also revealed that real estate programs housed in schools of professional studies
had an emphasis on industry engagement and regularly hosted conferences with top industry
executives, drawing not only students but also industry attendees. One administrator noted that,
in addition to the curriculum itself, the importance of industry engagement and networking were
equally if not more valuable:
A17: The professional networking surrounding these programs is almost as valuable in
some cases, maybe more valuable than the education… We’ve always been strong on
networking. We’re going to continue to do that. It’s probably more important now than
it was five years ago, three years ago, or one year ago.
Another finding was discussed by four of the administrator participants, who were
familiar with or had spent time at a business school. They expressed that real estate programs
housed in business schools faced more restrictions, which resulted in the lack of practitioner
faculty resources, than programs housed in a non-business schools due to business school
accreditation requirements of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
(AACSB). This prevented them from offering coursework that responded to what is happening
in the external environment. One administrator who spent time at real estate programs at both

60
business schools and non-business schools described the accreditation challenges within a
business school setting:
A7: In a business school, you are generally subject to the accreditation board of the
AACSB with certain rules. There’s a lot of rules driving the formation of real estate
programs in business schools that takes away a lot of the flexibility and creativity of
running the program because they have to conform to the business school. The
advantage of the business school might be the prestige, but school of professional studies
could do anything as long as it has validity. It can be incredibly dynamic, rigorous, and
almost rely exclusively on adjunct part-time faculty, whereas the business school could
never do that by the accreditation standard.
This adjunct and full-time faculty ratio, which does not apply to non-business schools, hindered
business schools from hiring more practitioners, who bring real-world expertise often sought
after in real estate education. Schools housed in non-business schools had a lot more flexibility.
One administrator, who ran a program within an architecture school, described how his
program’s position provided far more flexibility to hire practitioners rather than traditional
research faculty:
A14: And the fact that I'm in a school of architecture gives me a lot more flexibility in
who I can hire, who can teach right? I don't have to have all my faculty publishing the
best accounting journals, or, you know, obscure real estate journals. They can be
practicing professionals for the most part.
Without the flexibility to hire more practitioners, business schools faced challenges to offer a
comprehensive and multidisciplinary real estate education with a variety of professional subjects
such as construction, design, project management, and others. This also contributed to real estate

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programs in business schools focusing primarily on finance and asset management because, as
one administrator commented, most academic research in real estate has focused on finance and
asset management.
Theme 3: The Role of Practitioner Faculty in Real Estate Programs
All interview participants agreed that practitioner faculty was necessary and critical in
responding to the external environment. Real estate administrators faced the challenging
question of how to conduct professional education in an academic setting. One of the best ways
was to bring the profession into the classroom through faculty with professional experience as
real estate practitioners.
Real Estate Education Based on Professional Practice
Real estate is a professional field. It was neither built from a single discipline nor highly
theoretical, but a field based on professional practice. The academic, yet professional nature of
the field study was agreed upon by all the interview participants, and was articulated especially
well by one administrator, A18:
I think another challenge generally, and, as you well know, is real estate. Unlike many
fields, it is not a particularly academic field… There's real estate economics, but the real
estate development side is not as developed from a scholarly perspective. And what does
that mean? It means that most of the faculty that teach in these programs are industry
professionals. And that's great.
Role of Practitioner Faculty in Real Estate Programs
Real estate is more professional than academic, so it is important to understand the role of
faculty in real estate education. All the administrators interviewed hired adjunct faculty and
agreed that adjunct faculty were important to carrying out the curriculum. Across the United

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States, real estate programs have hired a lot of professional professors, or adjunct professors.
However, real estate programs in small cities tended to have more full-time faculty to make up
for the lack of adjunct faculty. A mix of practitioners and full-time faculty balanced applied and
theoretical knowledge in real estate programs. “Real estate is such an applied practical field that
you have to have practitioners,” said one administrator, but “add some tenured faculty members
to balance the theoretical and applied.” Another administrator described his view on the criticism
that real estate programs face in academic settings:
A12: There are some instances throughout the school year where we'll get the dart thrown
at us to say you don't really contribute to research or the academy, you’re much more
applied knowledge. I kind of counter that to say, yeah, but our graduates are employed
three months after graduation, and they get paid this amount. A couple years ago, [we]
shifted the discussion or the label from not just research, but we also call it creative
practice.
Masters in real estate programs are not just program found in professional trade schools; they
often exist within highly renowned academic universities, such as Harvard, Columbia, and
Cornell. Because of this, the faculty’s role is important and the programs must figure out how to
teach a professional subject in an academic setting.
Tenured research faculty bring research prestige to the program, but adjunct faculty
provide professional experience in the classroom. One professor described what he brought to
the classroom as a practitioner:
P11: I give my students the real-life experiences. I will usually bring in experiences that
I've dealt with that day, that week, or things that we have covered in class. Here's an
article I just found, or here is an experience that I just had to give you the current pulse of

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where things are at. They're getting a very hands-on 30- or 60-days relevancy to what's
happening in the market.
Interview participants noted that programs employed professors with many years of experience
in the real estate industry, and that perspective was invaluable. One seasoned industry executive
who now teaches described how he approached his courses, decidedly not as an academic but
from the perspectives of a practitioner:
P12: One thing I also realize teaching there is that I'm not an academic, so I wasn't going
to take the academic approach, because there are plenty of people that take the academic
approach. I think, as an adjunct, what I brought to the table was now 33 years of
experience. I guess when I started teaching more than 20 years of experience making a
lot of mistakes, investing right, and just teaching that.
The perspectives of a practitioner not only include industry knowledge but also the necessary
soft skills students may be lacking, which was discussed in Chapter Two. Both the literature and
interview participants discussed the lack of soft skills in real estate graduates. Professor P12
went on to reiterate the importance of soft skills, such as presentation skills, from his point of
view:
P 12: Real life is less theory and more how do you present, how do you do more with
fewer pieces of paper, how do you do more verbally, how do you work as a team, how do
you convince other people that are likely your peers? You don't get a lot of that in an
academic setting.
The real estate industry is highly dynamic and social. This demands critical thinking and soft
skills such as presentation, teamwork, and intercommunication skills, if students are to become

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successful real estate professionals. Practitioner professors were more aware to bring these
critical thinking and soft skills into the classroom, according to the interviewee.
Challenges with Practitioner Faculty
All the participants agreed that adjunct faculty were critical to the success of real estate
programs, and their approach in the classroom was more relevant to students and met the skilled
labor needs of the real estate industry. However, the challenge faced by adjunct faculty was that
their lack of formally training in teaching, which caused them to sometimes take on the role of
storytellers rather than traditional instructors. The key to mitigating this is to provide training and
resources to help them become teaching professionals. One administrator shared about the
challenges with adjunct faculty below:
A11: I feel like a little conflicted saying this but I'm going to say it. I think having that
industry expertise is great… but sometimes they're adjuncts that think because they have
the industry expertise that they're teaching. And they're not right. There's a difference
between teaching and telling stories. I think the biggest issue is how do we onboard
adjunct faculties that they understand the best practices and techniques for teaching and
conveying knowledge and assessing learning outcomes.
Another challenge with adjunct faculty was their busy schedules. As working professionals, they
could easily be occupied by their professional work at any moment. While administrators would
like to see more practitioners in the classroom, over half of the administrators voiced concerns
about the performance of adjuncts in terms of meeting academic standards. One administrator
spoke about his worry in hiring adjuncts:
A6: I would like to see some more practitioners. A good professional is busy unless they
are retired. I worry about if they just get up there and tell war stories? Or do they really

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teach content? I try to be careful when we're bringing on adjuncts to just be clear about
what they're doing.
Despite the need for more practitioners, administrators emphasized the need to differentiate
storytellers from teachers. Given the important role adjuncts played in real estate programs,
programs have sought ways to address the lack of instructor training. One program implemented
a buddy system that partnered new adjunct faculty members with a more experienced faculty
member. One administrator admitted the need “to pay more attention to [training]” due to an
unclear onboarding process and even a “non-existent” process. When he first started teaching, he
co-taught with an industry person. From there, he taught his own classes. Another administrator
described how his program created a system where adjuncts can support each other among their
busy schedules:
A18: I've effectively created a system where you have a buddy. It's like every course is
co-taught. Any one person doesn't have to feel like they're taking on the whole course. If
the course runs twice a week, maybe one instructor leads one day and then the other
instructor leads another day. And I think from our students’ perspective, that's a good
thing because it just broadens their network. It just gives them bigger set of people to
connect with and introduce others.
The key to a successful roster of effective adjunct faculty members is to focus on training and to
provide the resources they need to succeed.
Theme 4: Engagement with Key Stakeholders to Keep Up with the Changing Industry
The fourth theme was engagement with key stakeholders. Study participants reported
that important external stakeholders were in touch with the real estate industry and helped the
faculty and administrators respond to the changing external environment.

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Alumni
One group of key stakeholders was alumni. One professor interviewed, who was also a
graduate of a real estate program, said that alumni are a giant untapped resource. Alumni were
important because they were already affiliated with the program and were more likely to help as
mentors or as guest speakers. Another professor, who was also a graduate of the program he
taught in, described how alumni could benefit the program:
P8: Even if it's as simple as a lunch and learn at the alumni's office. Learn about their
projects and learn about how things are changing since they've graduated. Learning
about what they think that the trends are going to be. I think that would be super valuable
[to have] any sort of facetime with the alumni. It's such a giant, untapped resource.
Industry Advisory Board
In addition to getting feedback from students and alumni, programs also had advisory
boards composed of senior real estate professionals to provide feedback. In numerous instances,
the board members helped the program fundraise and raise the profile of the program. Indeed,
the programs that did a good job of engaging board members also benefited the most from this
stakeholder group. One administrator discussed the positive experience of engaging the advisory
board:
A14: We can very easily tap the board. Our board is not just a list of people who will
give us money. We have a policy that before anybody really is considered, in most cases,
they have to have had some engagement with the students in the program. We're looking
for people willing to serve as a mentor. To come in the classroom and lecture, to do site
visits, to obviously provide support, to provide internships, and ultimately hopefully to
hire.

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Employers
Interview participants also noted the importance of engaging with employers in the
industry, and incorporating the findings into the curriculum. This allowed the programs to tailor
their learning to meet the expectations of employers, something that can help students better
prepare for job interviews. One administrator shared about the effort to engage employers to
benefit students:
A16: I'm out there talking to employers, you know, a good example is that I help students
a lot on the career piece in terms of job placement. I'm reviewing job ads that are out
there and connecting them to students. In the last like five to six years, I've seen project
management listed as one of the qualifications. We are integrating that into our
curriculum. It's important to be able to make sure that our students are coming away with
those skill sets, soft skills and hard skills.
All the interview participants discussed their experiences with various stakeholder groups and
emphasized the importance of engaging with them and incorporating their helpful feedback and
industry advice into the curriculum.
Conclusion
The qualitative data collected through interviews of administrators and professors is
summarized in four themes: the leadership and structure of real estate programs, the context of
real estate programs, balancing of academia and industry in real estate curriculum, and the
engagement with key stakeholders.
These findings helped answer the research question: How do real estate programs
respond to the rapidly changing environment? First, the structure of a real estate programs is
important, requiring proper leadership that can balance academia and practice. The structure

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must be nimble and entrepreneurial to adapt to the changing environment. Second, the context of
a real estate program affects the resources it has access to. Real estate program in larger cities
have access to more real estate activity than those in smaller cities. Third, the curriculum must
balance academia and industry, and be setup in such a way that is adaptive to change. This is
achieved through electives and academic freedom whereby professors may alter course content
within existing courses as long as it meets the learning objectives. Lastly, by engaging key
stakeholders, students, employers, and programs can keep up with the ever-changing real estate
industry.

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CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The purpose of this study was to answer the research question: How do real estate
programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment? As referenced in Chapter Two,
the study was guided by the evolutionary change framework and the discussion and
recommendations are presented through this lens. The study was focused on master’s in real
estate programs in the United States, seeking to help programs keep up with the rapidly changing
external environment. This chapter discusses the findings in connection with the theoretical
framework and makes recommendations for practice.
Interview data indicated that real estate programs responded to the rapidly changing
external environment by finding ways to bring the real estate industry to the program, both inside
and outside the classroom. This included having guest speakers, using adjunct faculty, attending
conferences, and hosting study tours. As a professional field, industry engagement was key in
preparing students for the real estate industry. Today, students seek out programs that best cater
to their personal and career goals (Hardre & Pan, 2017), so the programs needed to stay relevant
with what is going on in the real estate industry.
Discussion of Findings
This study was guided by the evolutional change framework as an analytical tool, and the
findings are discussed under the characteristics of evolutionary change. Under this framework,
change is often due to events in the external environment (Kezar, 2018). It is important to create
nimble and flexible structures that could face and adapt to the changes. The change process is
gradual, and the results are new structures and processes. The characteristics of the evolutionary
change framework are being proactive, broadly engaging organizational stakeholders,
responding strategically, creating nimble structures, having a strong understanding of strengths

70
and weaknesses and creating priorities, mapping and developing internal capacities, becoming
entrepreneurial, and organizational learning. The following section examines this study’s
findings using four of the most common and recurring elements of the evolutionary framework:
being proactive, broadly engaging organizational stakeholders, creating nimble structures, and
becoming entrepreneurial.
Being Proactive
The first element is being proactive. Being proactive is crucial in keeping up with a
changing industry. An academic institution’s role is to teach and prepare students for the
professional real estate industry. As mentioned in one of the themes in chapter four, balancing
academia and industry in the curriculum is important. The goal upon graduation is employment
and students seek out programs with a curriculum that is in line with their career aspirations
(Hardre & Pan, 2017). Graduate students are also adult learners, and they are more motivated to
learn something that is relevant to their work (Knowles, 1980). The andragogical approach must
be more learner-directed and employment focused. Administrators and professors interviewed in
this study stressed the importance of being proactive to offer curriculum and programming that
aligns with students’ goals and remains current with the real estate industry.
All the administrators who participated in this study also talked about the importance of
the connection with industry and understanding what was most current and relevant in the real
estate market. This is the industry engagement discussed in Chapter Four and it included
attending conferences, speaking to senior real estate executives, and looking at news and
research publications. Another example of being proactive was when a program in the smaller
city context brought students to a big city context for study tours and, in some cases, hosted

71
classes taught by alumni. All the programs in smaller city contexts used study trips to mitigate
having less industry resources in a smaller city.
All the professors in the study also exemplified being proactive through two main ways.
First, they incorporated current events into the lectures, so the materials were fresh and up to
date. Second, the professors made it a point to bring their daily work into the classroom.
Findings from this study aligned with findings from other studies that adjuncts provided
practically oriented education and allowed the real estate programs to provide the desired breadth
of offerings (McGrath, 2020). To stay active with the changing industry, it was important to
employ adjunct or professional professors who were actively engaged in the real estate industry.
Adjunct professors were critical in preparing students professionally because full-time professors
could become disconnected with everyday industry practices not shortly after leaving industry to
join academia (Hammond, 2018). Although some literature raised concerns about adjunct
professors, all the administrators agreed that having adjunct professors was crucial in running a
real estate program.
Broadly Engaging Organizational Stakeholders
The second element is broadly engaging organizational stakeholders. Being proactive
allowed the administrators to find out what was current and relevant in the industry. However, it
was by broadly engaging organizational stakeholders that the programs could really bring current
and relevant topics into the curriculum and classrooms. The organizational stakeholders
included alumni, industry advisors, employers, and other friendly connections in the industry.
This group was important because they were already connected to the program and be more
likely to offer help.

72
During the data collection, the participants, such as A14 when he spoke about positively
engaging his advisory board, were particularly excited when they spoke about their experience
working with stakeholders. One of the administrators talked about how easily he could tap his
advisory board members to engage with the students, and that these members were reviewed by
their engagement. The different types of engagement included being a mentor, being a guest
speaker, hiring an intern, or hosting a project tour. By directly engaging with the industry, the
students touched what was happening in the real estate market beyond what they read in the
textbooks. In addition, other studies have found that going on study tours was helpful in
complementing students’ real estate learning in the classroom (Hopkins, 2021). The advisory
board could also give feedback and advice on what was happening in the market, in addition to
new and existing course topics.
Another stakeholder group that needed to be engaged was the employers. In the real
estate industry, employers have found that new graduates lacked the skills required for success in
the profession (Hoxley, 2011). This could be explained by real estate programs that struggled to
incorporate constantly changing industry standards into the curriculum. All of the interviewed
administrators stressed the importance of job placement and discussed some of their efforts and
challenges. Ultimately, the programs needed employers to be actively engaged; this gave
programs crucial insight into what employers were looking for in their graduates.
Alumni engagement was also discussed in the findings in Chapter Four. One professor
said that “alumni are a giant untapped resource.” Alumni have a built-in connection with the
school and were a great resource to bring the industry perspective both inside and outside of the
classroom. All of these groups – industry advisors, employers, and alumni –helped support what
the programs needed to keep up with the changing environment.

73
Creating Nimble Structures
The third element is creating nimble structures. Nimbleness is a key characteristic trait
and an important pathway for change. The opposite of nimble is rigid, and being rigid would
block change. The notion of nimble structures was a recurring topic during the interviews. None
of the administrators I interviewed felt they were restricted, and all felt that they had freedom
and control over their respective programs. This was important to foster change.
One interesting finding was related to the rigidness of business school hiring. This was
the opposite of the experience in real estate programs housed in non-business schools. Due to
business school accreditation standards, there was an adjunct to full-time faculty ratio
requirement that prevented business schools from hiring more adjuncts. The administrators who
had spent time in real estate programs in both business schools and non-business schools all said
that this was a great restriction that put business schools at a disadvantage in teaching real estate,
which is professional and multidisciplinary in nature. Although there is research on the
multidisciplinary nature of real estate (McGrath, 2020) and the two general approaches –
multidisciplinary and financial management (McFarland & Nguyen, 2010), they do not address
the challenge that business school accreditation standards present in developing a more
multidisciplinary offering.
Becoming Entrepreneurial
The last element is becoming entrepreneurial. It takes trial and error for the real estate
programs to find positive change because not all good ideas work, and this is the need to be
entrepreneurial. One administrator said that the success of the programs keeping up with change
depended on the entrepreneurial spirit of the school. Schools needs to adapt and what works in
one school’s context may not work in another school’s context. Another director spoke of his

74
entrepreneurial approach by making small changes and having the flexibility to constantly adapt
to the changing environment. Once change is made, it needs to be evaluated to see if it was the
right change. He called it, “incremental improvement” and said that it was important to “keep on
top of how things are changing.”
The data in Chapter Four revealed that entrepreneurial spirit is important in real estate
programs because the real estate market is changing and faces new challenges every day. One
administrator said that a certain class may be a great idea and in-line with what the industry is
actively focusing on; however, the class may get a bad review and not be as valuable as
anticipated. This is a risk that the school needs to take, as one administrator discussed in the
interview data. When asked, all the administrators agreed that elective courses were a good way
to have an entrepreneurial approach and offer in line with the changing real estate industry.
However, the change may be within an existing course and not a whole new course in the
curriculum. This is the entrepreneurial spirit and the type of trial and error that the programs
need to employ to be successful.
Recommendations for Practice
Real estate programs not only need to impart foundational real estate knowledge, but also
need to help students stay active with ongoing trends and changes in the industry. As demand
for real estate education rises, academic programs also need to actively enhance their curriculum
and programming to provide top-quality courses and prepare graduates for the professional
world. Below is a list of recommendations and implementation strategies based on findings from
my research.
Recommendation 1: Focus on Key Evolutionary Change Elements in Curriculum

75
The study revealed that the real estate programs should focus on key evolutionary change
elements – being proactive, engaging stakeholders, creating nimble structures, and becoming
entrepreneurial (Kezar, 2018). A review of the real estate programs should focus on these
elements to ensure the curriculum stays up to date. These reviews should occur every three to
five years with these specific elements in mind, such as the lack of soft skills (Ayodele et al.,
2021) which some human resources managers believe is more important than technical
knowledge (Poon, 2012). In addition, there should be annual reviews that measure progress and
evaluate feasibility of these elements. This curriculum review process should be three to five
years because a cycle, just like the real estate cycle, is not fixed but rather open ended. The
structured review process should have the four evolutionary change elements in mind and be
flexible to make positive change.
This recommendation is a direct response to the first theme in chapter four – the
curriculum of real estate programs. Having the flexibility and the nimbleness of the curriculum
would allow the programs keep up with the rapidly changing external environment.
To implement this recommendation, it is important to first identify the key metrics for
evaluation. These metrics could be identified by the program administrators who are running the
program. However, it is important to also incorporate input from stakeholders outside of the
program, who may value metrics like social and leadership skills in the workplace. Once the key
metrics are identified, then it is important to set up a process to evaluate these metrics. For
example, a key metric could be employment. One evaluation item could be the percentage of
graduates employed measured by timing (e.g., one month from graduation, three months from
graduation, etc.) and preparedness of the graduates, as employers still struggle with the
preparedness of the graduates (Hoxley, 2011). The evaluation data would be measured annually,

76
or at a timing that is appropriate for the metric. An improvement in data would translate into
success, and a decline in the data would allow the program to identify an area for improvement.
The program could utilize existing resources (i.e., the program staff) to implement this
recommendation. The key is to have a clear process for the program staff to follow. However,
the program could engage outside resources periodically to ensure the processes are effective and
relevant.
The timeline for this recommendation would include three steps. First, identify the key
metrics. Second, develop the evaluation process for each metric. Third, collect data and
evaluate. The evaluation of data and improvement of process will be continual, under the lens of
the elements of change.
Recommendation 2: Constantly Increasing Resources in Real Estate Program
Real estate is multidisciplinary in nature (McGrath, 2020), and the study revealed the
importance of constantly increasing resources in real estate program. The outside environment is
constantly changing, and it is important to have the resources to keep up. Existing research
shows that course offerings are often driven by faculty willingness and availability (Galuppo &
Worzala, 2004), and the real estate community continues to struggle in preparing its students
(Saginor et al., 2020). Whether it is searching out other disciplines within the university or
access external industry resources, it is important to be mindful of constantly increasing these
resources. It is also important to not limit the resources, like the placement of the program
within a business school, causing its limitation in hiring practitioner faculty. It is inevitable that
the industry will continue to change and evolve, so it is important to improve the resources to
constantly respond to the external environment.

77
This recommendation is directly connected to the second theme in Chapter Four – the
resources available to real estate programs. The resources available to real estate programs
translate to its accessibility to university resources within and industry resources without.
Therefore, focusing on resources will help improve the programs’ ability to respond to change.
To implement this recommendation, it is important to understand what are the resources
that are lacking and what are the resources that need to improve on. This may start with a
meeting with the existing stakeholders to see what the demands on the industry are. Once that is
identified, then the resources can be achieved.
The program should engage with existing stakeholders as a resource who would
volunteer their time or be paid a stipend to help carry this out. I believe there would be a good
number of willing stakeholders because they would be willing to bring more resources into the
program.
The timeline for this recommendation would start with a meeting with stakeholders to
identify areas of need. Then, engage those who would be willing to participate in brining in the
additional resources.
Recommendation 3: Focus on Practitioner Faculty Support
The study revealed that it is crucial to focus on practitioner faculty resources and support.
Adjunct practitioner professors are critical in preparing students professionally because full-time
professors could become disconnected not long after they leave industry to join academia
(Hammond, 2018). All the interview participants also agreed that adjunct faculty were necessary
in real estate programs, despite research discussing problems with adjuncts. Many of the adjunct
professors lack the academic background that one would find from traditional full-time
professors (McGrath, 2020). The recommendation is to focus on and improve adjunct faculty

78
support by providing the resources they need from being a successful professional to be an
effective teacher (Hammond, 2018). Many adjunct professors are busy with their jobs and do
not have formal training in teaching. Therefore, proper resources and support would make their
role more effective.
This recommendation is directly connected to the third theme in chapter four – the role of
practitioner faculty in real estate programs. The practitioner professors are the ones who bring
everyday real estate activities into the classroom. Therefore, focusing on adjunct faculty
resources and support will help improve their effectiveness and help real estate programs stay
active with the industry.
To implement this recommendation, it is important to understand what are the resources
and the support that would help adjunct professors in their role. This may start with a meeting
with existing adjunct faculty to hear about their experiences and identify areas of support. Once
that is identified, then the areas of support can be addressed. This type of meeting should be
regular and continual. Once there is more dialogue and communication with adjunct faculty,
they can become resources and provide support for newer adjuncts.
The program should engage with existing adjuncts as a resource who would volunteer
their time or be paid a stipend to help carry this out. I believe there would be a good number of
willing adjuncts because they would see the value of such an initiative.
The timeline for this recommendation would start with a meeting with adjuncts to
identify areas of support. Then, engage those who would be willing to participate in addressing
the issues and provide help in the support areas.
Recommendation 4: Engage and Strengthen Communication with Related Stakeholders to
Benefit Student Learning and Professional Development

79
The study revealed that real estate programs should engage and strengthen
communication with related stakeholders to benefit student learning and professional
development. Studies have shown that traditional learning is not enough (Lattuca & Stark, 2011)
and that classroom learning should be complemented with outside engagement (Dewey, 1944)
such as study trips (Hopkins, 2021), internships (Weinstein et al., 2007), and case competitions
(Fertitta, 2023). To carry this out, it is important to have industry resources through broadly
engaging with key stakeholders (Kezar, 2018) because all the stakeholders – advisors (i.e., board
members), employers, and alumni – are active in the industry. These stakeholders are already
connected, which makes them friendly and more inclined to help. In addition, it is important to
not only engage but also actively strengthen communication with these related stakeholders.
Many programs recruit alumni stakeholders as adjunct professors, providing a wide range of
course offerings and real-time issues in the industry (McGrath, 2020). However, some alumni
want to help but are not properly engaged. There were some instances from the interview data
that the administrators said that their advisory boards were just a “pay-to-play” board and that
the faculty members, who were graduates, said that they were more willing to help if engaged. It
is important to point out that a community of key stakeholders who are related to the program
will be a great resource for the program.
This recommendation is a direct response to the fourth theme of Chapter Four –
engagement with key stakeholders to keep up with the changing industry. Chapter Four
referenced the success story of one director who did not have a problem bringing industry
activities to the program by engaging his advisory board. One professor, who was also a
graduate of the real estate program, said that alumni were a giant untapped resource to help
students engage with the industry. Another administrator talked about staying connected with

80
employers to know what they were looking for in graduates and to help graduates secure jobs
upon graduation. Engaging these stakeholders, understanding their views, and bringing them to
the program will bring the real estate industry to the program and the students, thus allowing the
real estate programs to stay active with the activities in the real estate industry. Studies have also
shown that meeting real estate executives motivated students and enhanced their interests to
pursue a career in the real estate industry (Robert & Hanton, 2021).
To implement this recommendation, the first step is to identify who the related
stakeholders are. This could be in the form of a directory of alumni and related parties that have
engaged with the real estate program (e.g., guest speakers). Second, there should be regular
meetings to engage these stakeholders to foster regular communication and relatedness. These
meetings could be open to a broader group, and those who would like to be more actively
involved will be naturally identified.
The program would work with the school’s alumni office or alumni group and tap into
their resources and engage with their membership base. The engagement and activities of the
community of key stakeholders will become a great resource for the school and could be mostly
run by alumni volunteers with the support of the program administrators.
The timeline of this recommendation is dependent on a few factors. If the school already
has an alumni group, then it would be easy to work with them and plan events to engage the
related stakeholders. If the school does not have a database of the stakeholders, then the first
step is to create the database before starting the engagement.
Limitations and Delimitations
There were several limitations and delimitations in this study. First, accuracy was one
limitation that was relevant in this research because self-reported information cannot be verified.

81
The participants may not have wanted to say something that inferred a weakness in their real
estate curriculum. Second, another limitation was my positionality. My background and
experiences could have unintentionally limited the research study due to my prior views and
understanding regarding the subject matter. To mitigate this, I informed the participants about
my background and experiences. The next limitation was time. The data was collected during a
two-month period, from November to December 2023, and some of the participants were not
available during those two months. Another limitation was accessibility. Due to my affiliation
with three real estate programs in New York City, most of the participants were in programs
located in New York. Even though the enrollment of students in the Northeast represented a
significant share of real estate students in the United States, it may not have fully represented all
the programs in the United States. The last limitation was the sample size. Even though I
exceeded my participant target, there were more professors and administrators I could have
spoken to for this study.
In addition to limitations, there were several delimitations as well. The first delimitation
was the degree, because there are other degrees in real estate that were not included in this study.
I chose to only study the master's in real estate programs because they had a more
comprehensive curriculum compared to other programs, such as a real estate program within a
master’s in business administration degree. The second delimitation was the participant pool. I
narrowed it to senior administrators and professors with at least three years of experience.
However, there were other participant groups who would have been beneficial in this research
such as students, alumni, employers, and other industry executives.

82
Recommendations for Future Research
After conducting this research, many interesting topics surfaced and there are several
recommendations for future research. First, it would be interesting to see a comparison of real
estate programs within business schools and those outside of business schools. This study was
limited to master’s in real estate programs and excluded master’s in business administration
programs, because real estate is multidisciplinary and master’s in real estate programs are more
flexible in their hiring of faculty and offering of courses than master’s in business administration
programs. However, it may be interesting to hear about the arguments from the master’s in
business administration side. Today, there are several business schools with well-known real
estate programs so it would be interesting to do a comparison analysis to ensure our view is not
biased.
Second, it would be interesting to see the importance of STEM in real estate education as
we embrace real estate technology. There are many real estate technology startups and some of
the programs have started introducing courses in property technology. Another hot topic in real
estate technology is artificial intelligence, which is another area that should be explored.
Interview participants in this study also reported that a longer OPT for international students was
beneficial, so the inclusion of a more science-based curriculum not only aligns with industry
trends but also solves a challenge for international students.
Lastly, it would be interesting to do a study on the role of real estate programs in
academia. Due to its professional nature, one administrator questioned whether real estate
programs should be under an academic setting. There are not many master’s in real estate
programs outside of the United States. It would be interesting to do a study on what the students
want from the real estate programs, whether it is solely to get a job or to be trained academically

83
on the subject, and what the educators think about the role of real estate education within
academia.
Conclusion
This study examined how real estate programs respond to the constantly changing
external environment. Findings from this study aligned with some prior research, but also filled
some of the gaps related to the current context and provided an updated perspective based on
recent trends. As a real estate professor of ten years, I found this research important not only for
my knowledge but also to hear what other colleagues had to say about their experiences. It was
insightful to dive into the research topic and see how they approached the challenges in the
industry. The insights and findings will give fresh perspective to administrators in their
programs and professors in their classrooms. Due to the growth of real estate programs in recent
years, it was interesting to hear about the context of the newer programs and how they adapted.
It was also helpful to dive into the challenges in real estate education, such as understanding the
need for adjunct faculty and finding ways to overcome their challenges. Moreover, it was
exciting to hear about the positive experiences of engaging stakeholders and to share these
experiences to benefit other programs. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to my colleagues about
real estate education and many of the participants said that we do not have enough conversations
about the topic. I hope this research will increase the dialogue on real estate education in the
years to come.

84
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APPENDIX A: Information Sheet
STUDY TITLE: Real Estate Programs Response to Change
PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR: Johnny Din
FACULTY ADVISOR: Dr. Tracy Tambascia
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this study is to answer the research question: How do real estate programs
respond to the rapidly changing external environment. Real estate is a multifaceted industry
greatly influenced by the rapidly changing market and other external factors. Real estate
education has a difficult time keeping up with the highly dynamic industry. You are invited as a
possible participant because you are a key stakeholder in real estate education either as an
administrator or as a faculty member. Your insights will be extremely valuable as we evaluate
the current state of real estate education and, collectively, find ways to improve it.
PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT:
If you are an administrator or a faculty member in a real estate master’s program, you
will be invited to participate in a one-hour interview to answer some questions related to the
research topic. I plan to interview a minimum of 12 participants, with a minimum of six from
each of the key stakeholder groups: administrators and faculty members.
PAYMENT/COMPENSATION FOR PARTICIPATION:
None.
CONFIDENTIALITY:
The members of the research team, and the University of Southern California
Institutional Review Board (IRB) may access the data. The IRB reviews and monitors research

92
studies to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects. All information collected will
completely anonymous, confidential, and secure.
INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION:
If you have any questions about this study, please contact Johnny Din (jcdin@usc.edu)
and faculty advisor Dr. Tracy Tambascia (tpoon@usc.edu).
IRB CONTACT INFORMATION:
If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the
University of Southern California Institutional Review Board at 323.442.0114 or email at
irb@usc.edu.

93
APPENDIX B: Recruitment Email
My name is Johnny Din and I am a global executive EDD student at Rossier School of
Education at USC. I am doing a dissertation on real estate education and how to develop a
curriculum that could adapt to the rapidly changing external environment.
I am writing to see if you are willing to participate in my research by participating in a
one-hour interview that will help me for my study. As a colleague in the field of real estate
education, I believe my research will be interesting to you and I would be happy to share my
findings. Your participation is strictly voluntary, and your responses and identity will be
confidential.
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you know anyone who may be a good fit
to participate in my research, I would be grateful for the connection.

94
APPENDIX C: Interview Protocol
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. My name is Johnny Din and I am
currently a doctoral student at USC studying education. I am conducting a study for my doctoral
dissertation on how real estate education can adapt to the rapidly changing external environment.
As an adjunct professor and practitioner, I am passionate about this topic. The information you
provide during this interview will be solely used for the purposes of my research and will be held
confidential.
I. Introduction:
• May I can have permission to record this interview?
• Do you have any questions before we start?
• Introduce the purpose of this study.
• Please tell me a little about yourself and your program?
II. Stakeholder Questions
A. Curriculum: The curriculum questions would be given to the administrators but may
be given to faculty (if appropriate). The questions will focus on how curriculum
change due to the rapidly changing external environment.
• Can you describe the curriculum of your program and how it was developed?
a. Who decides on the curriculum?
b. How often does it get reviewed and updated?
c. How do you identify new trends in the industry to stay relevant?
d. What is the process of changing the curriculum? What are the reasons?
e. Is the program accredited? How does the accrediting process work?

95
• How did your program’s curriculum adapt to the rapidly changing external
environment in recent years – covid-19, rise in interest rates, technology, etc.)?
a. Any new course offerings? How quickly were they developed?
• What are some of the challenges you face in your curriculum and how did you
manage it?
• How are you supported by the school?
a. How often do you meet with more senior administrators about the
curriculum?
b. Is there any training in developing curricula?
• What is the goal of your program?
a. How did you carry it out?
b. Have the goals changed? How did you adjust?
B. Courses: The course questions would be given to the teaching faculty members but
may be given to administrators (if appropriate). The questions will focus on how the
course content change due to the rapidly changing external environment.
• Can you describe your course and how it was developed?
a. Who decides on the syllabus?
b. How often does it get reviewed and updated?
c. How do you identify new content to stay relevant?
d. What is the process of changing your syllabus? What are the reasons?
e. How often do you change your course contents? What is the process?
f. Who approves your syllabus? What is the approval process?

96
• How did your course adapt to the rapidly changing external environment in recent
years – covid-19, rise in interest rates, technology, etc.)?
a. Any new content or changes? How quickly were they implemented?
• What are some of the challenges you face in your courses and how did you
manage it?
• How is the faculty support in your program?
a. How often do you have faculty meeting regarding your course?
b. How often do you have faculty training regarding your course?
• What are the key learning objectives for your course?
a. How do you carry it out?
b. Have these objectives changed? How did you adjust?
III. Conclusion:
• Any comments on this study that we have not covered, or you would like to discuss?
• Do you know anyone who may be a good candidate to interview on the research
topic?

Abstract (if available)

Abstract As a professional study, real estate programs must keep up with the constantly changing real estate profession. The purpose of this study was to answer the research question: How do real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment? This qualitative study was conducted through interviews of administrators and professors in master’s in real estate programs in the United States. There were four themes that emerged from the interview data: the curriculum of real estate programs, the resources available to real estate programs, the role of practitioner faculty in real estate programs, and the engagement with key stakeholders. Under the lens of the evolutionary framework, these elements were found to be important for the real estate programs to adapt to change: being proactive, broadly engaging organizational stakeholders, creating nimble structures, and becoming entrepreneurial. In conclusion, four recommendations for real estate programs were made to answer the research question: focus on key evolutionary change elements in curriculum; constantly increasing resources in real estate program; focus on practitioner faculty support; and engage and strengthen communication with related stakeholders to benefit student learning and professional development.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Din, Johnny (author)

Core Title How real estate programs respond to the rapidly changing external environment

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Global Executive

Degree Conferral Date 2024-08

Publication Date 08/23/2024

Defense Date 08/20/2024

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,real estate education

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Tambascia, Tracy (committee chair), Hirabayashi, Kimberly (committee member), Seli, Helena (committee member)

Creator Email dr.johnnydin@gmail.com,jcdin@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113999GTO

Unique identifier UC113999GTO

Identifier etd-DinJohnny-13410.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-DinJohnny-13410

Document Type Dissertation

Format theses (aat)

Rights Din, Johnny

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20240823-usctheses-batch-1201 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu