VAPM 313 Property and Facilities Management

Executive management of both private and public sector organisations are increasingly concerned with the strategic management of property assets. These facilities are not only valuable but also critical to delivering the core outputs of many organisations on a sustainable basis. As a result, corporate facilities and asset management has been an area of strong growth over the last decade, leading to a shortage of qualified professionals. In depth liaison with industry resulted in the development of VAPM 313 as a 300 level "capstone" course where the basic property management, engineering and facilities management content of 200 level courses is integrated to enable the strategic asset management of complex property portfolios in both investment and corporate real estate asset management settings. VAPM 313 should also appeal to students taking tourism, hospitality and environmental management degrees as well as general commerce/finance/accounting students who envisage working in large organisations with substantial reals estate assets (for example: local authorities, government departments, educational institutions, large industries and retailers etc.) Course delivery includes a combination of lectures and industry guest lecturers plus field trips and case studies. A high degree of self directed learning will be involved. Students will be expected to independently source information and carry out their own analysis of individually allocated situations. Both written reports and oral presentations will be expected. The inherent conflicts of interest in corporate real estate situations will necessitate an ability to synthesise and contextualise recommended courses of action. In addition students will be expected to critically evaluate both the academic literature and real world case studies and be willing to advance and justify independent points of view.