IRVINE, CA—Something is lost when students and teachers do not get together in the classroom and witness actual learning taking place, the University of California Irvine's new Professor of Economics N. Edward Coulson tells GlobeSt.com. Coulson recently joined the faculty of the UCI Paul Merage School of Business in the area of Economics and Public Policy and will assume a leadership position in the school's Center for Real Estate as director of research, officially beginning to teach in early 2017.

Coulson previously served as professor of economics and director of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to that, he served as professor of economics and King Faculty Fellow in Real Estate at the Pennsylvania State University, where he had been a member of the faculty since 1984 and had received numerous outstanding teaching awards.

We spoke with Coulson exclusively about his new position and real estate education trends at the university level.

GlobeSt.com: What are you most looking forward to in your new position with UCI?

Coulson: I am really looking forward to working with the terrific faculty at the Merage School of Business, especially Kerry Vandell, the director of the Real Estate Center. I am also looking forward to interactions with the real estate community of Orange County, one of the most dynamic real estate markets in the country.

GlobeSt.com: What trends are you noticing in teaching real estate at the university level?

Coulson: The real estate market has been through quite a lot in the past decade, nowhere more than in Las Vegas. Students want to know how that happened and how can we know if another bubble and bust is on the horizon. I don't think Orange County's experience is quite the same as Las Vegas, however.

GlobeSt.com: How do you anticipate this type of education changing over the next decade?

Coulson: I will answer in the negative. The wave of the present is the movement toward online learning. While I understand its conveniences, I truly believe that something is lost when students and teachers do not get together in the classroom and witness actual learning taking place. It's a beautiful thing.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about the UCI Paul Merage School of Business Center for Real Estate?

Coulson: Under the leadership of Professor Vandell, the Center for Real Estate has become in the past decade one of the finest institutes of its kind in the world.

We spoke with Coulson exclusively about his new position and real estate education trends at the university level.

GlobeSt.com: What are you most looking forward to in your new position with UCI?

GlobeSt.com: What trends are you noticing in teaching real estate at the university level?

GlobeSt.com: How do you anticipate this type of education changing over the next decade?

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about the UCI Paul Merage School of Business Center for Real Estate?

Coulson: Under the leadership of Professor Vandell, the Center for Real Estate has become in the past decade one of the finest institutes of its kind in the world.

Instant Insights /

Real Estate Education Can't Be Completely Online

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