Undergraduate Real Estate Education In Zimbabwe: A Comparative Study

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to establish if there is a national consensus on the real estate body of knowledge in Zimbabwe and to benchmark Zimbabwean property programmes with similar curricula accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Africa.DESIGN / METHODS FOLLOWED / APPROACH: Purposive sampling was used to choose participating institutions. Relevant documents were obtained from either websites of selected institutions or requested by email from relevant officials.FINDINGS: The study established that the real estate curricular which is currently offering real estate in Zimbabwe is diverse in nature. However, a closer analysis revealed that the course’s content of Zimbabwean property curricula compares well. Also property programmes in Zimbabwe compare well with RICS accredited curricula in Africa but there were notable variations on names of programmes, the number of courses covered and course credits.RESEARCH LIMITATIONS / IMPLICATIONS: This study was limited to real estate programmes which are offered up to Honours degree level in Zimbabwe and similar RICS accredited programmes which are offered in Africa. Results might be different if one considers all RICS accredited real estate programmes.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Results of this study can be used to justify cooperation of real estate education and professional institutions in working towards standardisation of real estate education curricula in Africa.ORIGINALITY / VALUE OF WORK: Though research on real estate education increased over the past years, this study is the first to consider Zimbabwean curricula in detail. Keywords: real estate, comparison, progress, curriculum, consistency, diversity