Fifty years of real estate education and research at the University of Aberdeen will be marked later this year with a special celebratory conference headed by a raft of leading industry names.
The Department of Land Economy was established at the University in 1974 with the assistance of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and a generous donation from the MacRobert Trust.
Fifty years later over 2,500 students have graduated from the various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in land economy, property and real estate; and groundbreaking research on the commercial, residential and rural market has helped shape the international real estate agenda.
In celebration of this milestone, the University will host a conference on 7 November at its Old Aberdeen campus, with a celebration dinner in Elphinstone Hall in the evening.
Open to anyone currently working or with an interest in the property industry, the conference will hear from a range of real estate leaders who will provide insights into the opportunities and challenges facing the various property sectors. They include:
Keynote Lorna Brown, chief executive of Birchwood Real Estate Capital; Neil Cable, head of European Real Estate at Fidelity International; George Aberdeen, co-founder of Kinrise Real Estate; Chris Stewart, chief executive of Chris Stewart Group; Alison Fyfe, chair of Target Healthcare REIT Plc; and Dame Alison Nimmo, former chief executive of The Crown Estate.
Professor Norman Hutchison, director of the Centre for Real Estate Research at the Business School, said: “We are proud of our programmes, our graduates and of our research. In 2024 the Centre for Real Estate Research was ranked in the global top 20 for citations, recognition that our real estate research contributes to shaping the future of urban development, investment and sustainability.
“We are grateful for all the support we have received from industry over the last 50 years. It has been a true partnership and the prestigious range of senior figures that we have secured to speak at the conference, really reflects this.
“Not only is it a celebration of this milestone anniversary, this event will, we hope, provide industry professionals and those aspiring to work in the sector with an interesting and inciteful snapshot of the opportunities and challenges facing the sector today.”
The ‘Celebrating 50 years of Real Estate at the University of Aberdeen Conference’ takes place at King’s College Conference Centre from 1.30pm to 5pm on 7 November.
More information and booking details for this and the Celebration Dinner can be found here.