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Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Professorship of Real Estate Finance

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. In the academic plan for the Department of Land Economy, produced in 1997, the Board of Land Economy referred to their intention to enhance the Department's expertise in property research, in order to complement research strengths in public policy and regulation. This development was considered critical to the success of any future growth within the Department, and led the Board to set up research groups in property, environment, urban and regional economics, and rural economics.

2. The Department of Land Economy already has strengths in several aspects of property research, particularly those pertaining to housing and planning issues. The Board of Land Economy consider that this area should now be complemented by work in the application of modern financial methods to property analysis. This development is regarded as essential in the light of recent trends in the property profession, most notably the increasingly international dimension of work in this area and the shift from the use of narrow property appraisal techniques to more general methods of financial analysis.

3. The Board of Land Economy, with the concurrence of the Council of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, have represented to the General Board that the establishment of a Professorship in the field of real estate finance would promote the strategic development of the Department and would also reinforce the Department's efforts to improve its standing in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. (The term 'real estate finance', although less familiar in the United Kingdom, is recognized internationally in connection with this area of research; by the use of this title the Board wish both to distance the intended field of study from the more conventional approaches to property valuation and to indicate that the holder of the Professorship would be expected to adopt an international approach to the subject). The Professor would be expected to build up a substantial research programme in the field of finance in its application to property, and to provide leadership for the development of the Department's teaching programme, particularly at the postgraduate level.

4. The Board of Land Economy have proposed, with the agreement of the Managers of the Estate Management Development Fund, that the full cost of the Professorship should be met from that Fund, including the saving on the funding of a vacant University Lectureship which is normally charged to the Fund. The General Board have accepted the case made by the Board of Land Economy; they have agreed that the University Lectureship should be suppressed, and that the resulting saving should be used to meet the cost of the Professorship. The Board are assured that suitable accommodation and facilities for the work of the Professor can be provided.

5. The General Board accordingly propose that a Professorship of Real Estate Finance should be established in the University for a single tenure from 1 January 1999. The Board have agreed to concur in the view of the Board of Land Economy that an election to the Professorship should be made by an ad hoc Board of Electors and that candidature should be limited to persons whose work falls within the field of the application of modern financial techniques to property finance and investment.

6. The General Board recommend:

That a Professorship of Real Estate Finance be established for one tenure from 1 January 1999, placed in Schedule B of the Statutes, and assigned to the Department of Land Economy

18 November 1998

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Cambridge University Reporter, 25 November 1998
Copyright © 1998 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.