Land Economy

The course

Land Economy is a specialised subject within Cambridge, devoted to the multi-disciplinary study of land, property, the environment and resource management. There is a lively and active group of staff and students, operating within an intensive research-oriented environment. The two primary disciplines are law and economics.

It is a small department by Cambridge standards, yet there are over 40 teaching and reseach staff, including economists, econometricians and statisticians, lawyers, planners and urban geographers.

The teaching has been certified by an independent Panel from the Government's Quality Agency as being of the highest quality. Our undergraduate teaching programme is a full three-year Tripos, in which students are given a solid grounding in microeconomics and macroeconomics, as well as public law (constitutional and administrative)and private law (contract, tort and company law).

Later courses build on these legal and economic foundations, and draw together the two disciplines. Examples include special papers on land and urban economics, environmental and regional economics, real property law, the law of landlord and tenant, the built environment, urban and environmental planning, real estate finance and investment, agriculture, forestry and rural development, and land policy and development economics.

The programme is rigorous and challenging. Students are introduced to complex debates, and to their practical implications. It is not a programme of vocational training for surveyors, yet it has the advantage of accreditation by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in recognition of the importance of such rigorous education for leading property professionals.

The Department is particularly proud of the employment record of its graduates. The Department's record is amongst the strongest in the University, with graduates going into property, law, finance, banking and management consultancy as well as going on to further study. The Department has a particularly strong research base, having recently been awarded Grade 5 in The National Research Assessment Exercise.

Each year the Department has an Open Day to which potential applicants are cordially invited. Further details are available in the University Prospectus entry for Land Economy or you may like to visit the Department's website.

Pembroke and Land Economy

Pembroke has long established links with the Department of Land Economy: the Department was founded by Professor Donald Denman, who was a Fellow of the College. Pembroke has currently two Fellows in Land Economy, Professor Colin Lizieri and Dr Danilo Igliori (see profiles below). The Department is only two minutes walk from the College, in Silver Street.

Profiles of Pembroke Fellows in Land Economy

Professor Colin Lizieri is the Grosvenor Professor of Real Estate Finances. He is also a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and of the Royal Geographical Society. Colin has published extensively in the fields of real estate finance and office market dynamics. He is a member of the Investment Property Forum research committee, and has acted as an expert advisor and consultant to the European Union, the UK and Norwegian governments, the Corporation of London, the City of Toronto and numerous private sector organisations. He has appeared as an expert witness in the Lands Tribunal on real estate matters.

Dr Danilo Igliori is the Adam Smith Fellow in Political Economy and College Lecturer. His interests are in applied economics with a focus on spatial models. His research topics include industrial clustering and innovation, urban economics, and conservation and development in the Brazilian Amazon. He has been a consultant for government agencies in Brazil and the United Kingdom and for the World Bank. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as Land Economics, Journal of Regional Science, Urban Studies, and Development and Change. He is co-editor of the academic journal Spatial Economic Analysis.

Admissions

Pembroke regularly accepts two or three undergraduates each year for Land Economy. Numbers fluctuate reflecting the quality of the field; there are no subject quotas.

No particular A-level (or equivalent) subjects are stipulated. Economics, Geography and Mathematics will all be very useful, but the course itself provides basic and extra remedial support in Economics, for example.

The admissions process consists of two interviews, one with the Director of Studies and one with the Admissions Tutor, or another Fellow with responsibility for Admissions.

A few of the undergraduates reading Land Economy at Pembroke take a year off after completing school before coming up to university, and the College is very happy to receive applications for immediate or deferred entry. Further enquiries should be addressed to the Admissions Office at Pembroke by email - adm@pem.cam.ac.uk

See also the University Prospectus entry for Land Economy.

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