The Course

This course provides the higher education and skills needed by a modern manager of rural land and enterprise. Broadly, the course covers the following themes: Surveying, Valuation and Professional Practice, Law and Taxation, Rural Economy and Diversification (including woodlands and field sports management), Business Finance and Economics, Agriculture and the Environment, and Professional Scholarship Programme.

Options

Optional modules include Rural Leisure & Diversification/Events, Integrated Countryside Management, Sustainable Energy for the Rural Estate, Sustainable Forestry & Forestry Products, and Languages (including Spanish, French or German). Property Investment is incorporated into the Rural Asset Strategy and Management final year module.

Rural Assets

REALM uses rural assets economically to achieve clear business or other objectives. It is an ideal course for aspiring Rural Practice Chartered Surveyors, and is suitable for those with an interest in the management of the countryside in a business context, including countryside and environmental management, estate management, agriculture and diversification.

Course Work

All taught subjects are partly assessed on course work. In addition, there are modules designed to integrate the subjects by presenting real-life client problems for students to solve. The final year dissertation provides an opportunity for students to develop an in-depth understanding of a chosen topic. Typically modules will be 50% course work and 50% examination.

RICS

The course is accredited under the RICS University Partnership Scheme and gives exemption from the institution’s theory examinations, including Rural, Residential, Commercial, Urban and General Practice. Candidates for RICS must go on to complete the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (APC).

APC

The APC involves two years of structured work experience, training and assessment. The placement year usually counts as the first APC year, leaving the second year to be undertaken after graduation. The course is diverse and flexible and, should you decide not to pursue the chartered surveying route, you can easily transfer to any of the countryside, environmental, business marketing or even farm management courses.

The Placement

The one-year work placement you will undertake in your third year will give you excellent experience in your chosen area of work. It may be working with a national firm such as Savills, Strutt and Parker, Smiths Gore, or a local firm, such as Fisher German or Balfours. Alternatively, you may choose to work on a large traditional estate such as the Buccleuch or Althorp Estates, on Defence Estates, with DEFRA, local authorities or The National Trust. Students who have performed well have often been offered a job when they graduate. Some students decide to take advantage of working abroad and have worked in Australia and New Zealand. The placement not only allows you to put the knowledge, understanding and skills already acquired on the course into practice, but aids your final year of study, and helps you decide on your future career.

The Future

Practice Chartered Surveyors are to be found working in:

• Large and small professional firms, providing a range of land management services
• Central and local government, providing advice to farmers and land owners, managing country parks and country smallholding estates.
• The management of rural land and property for bodies as diverse as the RSPB, English Nature, national parks and water and mineral companies.
• Traditional estates as Resident Land Agents.

Other careers graduates have chosen include: Commodity trading, farm management, accountancy, marketing, journalism, IT, photography, the armed services and setting up their own businesses.

There are also opportunities to go on to postgraduate study: We provide a MSc and Postgraduate Diploma in Rural Environment and Land Management, which is RICS approved.