E-ISSN 2281-4612 ISSN 2281-3993 Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 2 No 3 November 2013 397 Curriculum Guideline for Masters Real Estate Education in South Africa Dr. Samuel H.P. Chikafalimani Property Valuer / Property Industry Specialist Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa E-mail: samuelc@idc.co.za Doi:10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n3p397 Abstract As part of the process of assessment of Masters Real Estate (MRE) curricula in South Africa, real estate professionals in the property industry were surveyed to rank topics included in the curricula in order of their importance. Results reveal that professionals consider Property Finance as the most important topic in the curriculum and Information Technology as the least important topic. Findings will guide universities offering MRE programmes in South Africa and elsewhere in the processes of curriculum improvement. Keywords: Curriculum, real estate topics, property industry 1. Introduction Masters Real Estate programmes taught by coursework which are offered in South Africa are contained in Table 1. As part of the process of assessment of these curricula, real estate professionals in the property industry in South Africa were surveyed to obtain views on the importance of topics included in the curricula. Justification for the study is based on the fact that postgraduate real estate curricula in South Africa were developed without conducting more detailed property industry surveys to determine curriculum requirements (Cloete, 2002; and Chikafalimani and Cloete, 2007). Therefore, this study directly links actual industry requirements with the curriculum. In addition, practitioners in the industry have an important role to play in the process of real estate curriculum improvement since they have the experience and are familiar with the requirements to enable real estate professionals practice competently in the industry (Galuppo and Worzala, 2004). They also employ students graduating from the real estate programmes. Based on this they are well positioned to support educators in the processes of curriculum review and improvement (Callanan and McCarthy, 2003). 2. Literature review This study aims at providing a curriculum guideline for MRE education in South Africa by asking real estate professionals in the industry importance of topics included in the existing curricula. The intention of the study is to demonstrate to universities offering the curricula on how a real estate curriculum can be developed to meet property industry requirements. Unfortunately, few authors have investigated the importance of real estate topics in a curriculum. Brown (1979) conducted a survey to determine a consensus on the importance of real estate topics included in a university undergraduate real estate curriculum among professors and real estate professionals in the USA. Results of the study show that professionals view the importance of topics offered in the curricula differently from professors. An attempt to identify important real estate topics from an international perspective was undertaken by Black and Rabianski (1999) by surveying real estate academics and practitioners outside the USA and Canada. Their research results reveal that there is a divergence of opinion on a list of important topics and the importance of each topic. This divergence is related to the respondents’ primary area of interest in real estate and geographic area. Table 1: Masters Real Estate programmes offered in South Africa University & Dept / School Name of degree Admission requirements Duration Delivery Total credits Pretoria (Construction Economics) MSRE .Hons, 4 or 5 yr relevant bachelors degree .Work experience 2 yrs & treatise 8 block weeks 180