Pepperdine Announces New Graduate Degree in Real Estate

Amid the L.A. area’s burgeoning, post-Great Recession real estate market, Pepperdine University has announced a new master’s degree in real estate investing and financing. Under the new Master of Science Real Estate Investment and Finance degree program within the university’s Graziadio School of Business and Management in Malibu, students can complete the courses in a year when taking 34 units each trimester. Classes will start in August, the university said. The program will run under the Fred Sands Institute of Real Estate at the Graziadio School. The program will emphasize technical, quantitative and critical skills needed for positions in finance, accounting, law, economics and decision sciences, such as risk management, statistics and forecasting. Students, with help from a professor, will choose a project to solve current business challenges in real time and get paired with working professionals. Students will also participate in a relevant internship and international study projects. Abraham Park, director of the Fred Sands Institute of Real Estate and associate professor of finance at the Graziadio School, said in a statement that global finance trends will change how business works, including real estate markets, over the next 10 years. “To successfully navigate these shifting economic, financial, and legal environments, real estate professionals need to equip themselves with broader and deeper market knowledge and sharper analytical and practical skills,” Park said in the statement.