MSc Real Estate 2013: the first week

As usual, Nick French, Programme Leader for the MSc Real Estate packed a lot into the first week for the new students. One of the highlights was the walking tour of Oxford, hosted by Nick French and Angus McIntosh (Visiting Professor at Oxford Brookes and expert in international economics and property markets). The tour was accompanied by the 'Oxford Property Market Questionnaire' (compiled by Nick and Angus) with 77 questions, the purpose of which was to make the students more familiar with the centre of Oxford and also to equip the students with the relevant information about the city that they would need to construct a group presentation on the property market in Oxford for the following week.

This year, I was lucky enough to accompany the students on the tour (which was excellent) to take some photos:

Introduction by Angus at the railway station

Leaving the railway station

Heading towards Oxpens Road...

...to Kingsmead House

Abbey Place (empty) car park at the back of the Westgate Centre - who said parking in Oxford was a problem?  

Counting buses and trucks on the Westgate Centre footbridge 

More counting: pedestrians in the Clarendon Centre

Cornmarket Street - the main shopping street in Oxford

Down at the end of Cornmarket, heading down Magdalen Street

The main bus station (a lot of buses in a very small space) at Gloucester Green

The usual field trip to DTZ HQ in London followed on Friday - the day was hosted by DTZ who are one of the sponsors of the MSc Real Estate at Oxford Brookes. The students attended a number of presentations including 'A Day in the Life of a Surveyor' given by James Rolton, a Senior Surveyor at DTZ - interesting as James is a graduate from the MSc Real Estate Management at Oxford Brookes. The students were then given a tour of City Offices by a member of the City Agency Team at DTZ.