DENVER—Industry experience runs broad and deep in these programs, faculty members tell GlobeSt.com. We spoke exclusively with several university commercial real estate program professors to find out what type of real-life real estate industry experience most have had and what they bring to the table. Also read our feature about what types of careers graduates of these programs can expect to have, and stay tuned for an upcoming in-depth feature on the evolution of university commercial real estate programs in Real Estate Forum's July/August issue.

GlobeSt.com: What real estate industry experience do the professors who teach university-level commercial real estate courses typically have?

Jeff Engelstad, CCIM, clinical professor, Burns School of Real Estate & Construction Management, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver: That varies across the board from program to program. When I'm talking to students, I encourage them to look into that, to ask what their experience is and what they have really done. Maybe they never did a real estate deal in their lives, and that's not what a lot of students are looking for. When they're looking at programs, I tell them to look at the practical bent of the faculty. Because real estate is such an applied discipline, you tend to find more faculty members involved/engaged in the business, whether they do corporate consulting or some other aspect of the industry. Real estate is not as ivory tower as other disciplines, in my opinion, and this is good. My role at the University of Denver is one of a clinical professor or professor of practice, so the amount of work I publish in journals is minimal, but my involvement in the industry is strong. I'm an academic, but I'm also involved in real estate development and investment projects.

Shawn D. Howton, PhD, Villanova University faculty director, Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate, Associate Professor of Finance, Villanova, PA: In the DiLella Center, the professors have very deep experience in the areas they teach (20-plus years), and many continue to practice as they teach. Real estate is an applied discipline, so we believe industry is key to providing a rich classroom experience. I am the only person in the center without applied experience, and I co-teach the classes I teach with industry experts to make sure that applied knowledge is there across our program.

Morris A. Davis, academic director and Paul V. Profeta chair of the Center for Real Estate at Rutgers Business School, Newark, NJ: We have hired a PhD to focus solely on better and deeper industry-relevant research that will facilitate industry and decision-making, leading to superior public policy. At most centers, PhD faculty will only work on publications relevant for academia and not for the industry.

Margaret McFarland, JD, clinical professor, director, Colvin Institute of Real Estate Development, University of Maryland, College Park, MD: In many business-school programs, the number of industry professionals is highly restricted to those few who have earned a PhD or JD. In the 20 or so programs based outside of business schools, there is a greater reliance on industry professionals to do everything from guest lectures to site tours/lectures to full classroom teaching. Typically, these industry professors are highly experienced and have a lot to give back in wisdom and experience. At Maryland, all courses are taught by industry professionals, but most particularly the Capstone course (an individual project-feasibility study) uses industry developers to mentor three to five students on a development proposal. Rosemary Scanlon, divisional dean, Schack Institute of Real Estate, NYU School of Professional Studies, New York: At Schack, we feature the importance of applied knowledge along with theoretical concepts and technical skills. All of our full-time professors come to the classroom with years of industry experience in finance, development or construction, and most retain ongoing connections as consultants or advisors to companies. All of our adjuncts are fully employed and bring their real-world knowledge and experience to the classroom, and their strong connections to the industry benefit our graduate students.

Albert Saiz, director, Dan Rose associate professor of urban economics and real estate, MIT Center for Real Estate, Cambridge, MA: Some programs boast a mix of full-time academics and researchers as well as lecturers who practice in the field and teach part time. Our program follows this model as well, while others have a full roster of lecturers who teach part time while practicing in the field. In MIT's MSRED program, the faculty includes a full-time finance professor, a full-time urban economist and a full-time urban designer, and we are actively recruiting a professor specializing in global real estate. Other faculty members include an economics professor emeritus, a visiting finance professor, a management and leadership lecturer and a large cadre of real estate developers, entrepreneurs and consultants with combined experience in all aspects of the industry. MIT's model works very well in providing a distinguishing combination of deep analytical skills and practical knowledge.