Current and former students share their experiences of studying Real Estate Surveying at Edinburgh Napier.

BSc Real Estate Surveying

Robyn has come back from the world of work to study in Surveying at Edinburgh Napier. Read more about their journey as they talk us through what aspects make this course stand out for their future career prospects.  


Robyn BSc Real Estate Surveying

I was drawn to study at Edinburgh Napier University due to its reputation.

I was working in the property sales sector for a number of years. I very much enjoyed my job, but I had reached a point in my career where I just wanted more. I wanted to be able to have the skill set that would both allow me to earn more, but also to provide me with a career which would be challenging in the long term for me, and because I had a natural interest in surveying, it just felt like the right choice for me. 


It seems very much industry focused. 

The reason that I was drawn to the course at Edinburgh and the surveying course had a real range of different aspects to it that were of particular interest to me. They were going into detail to study the valuation methods in particular, which I'm very interested in due to my industry background. So from the commercial aspect, I thought it was a really varied course that had a lot to offer. 

The course does offer you that flexibility. 

Some of the things that we've covered in the course are very applicable to my own personal interests. I'm very interested in property development, investment, so probably more so the commercial side at this stage, although I'm finding all aspects of the course very interesting. So I've allowed myself a bit of leeway to possibly change that in the future. 

The application process was straightforward. 

In terms of actually starting, I found a lot of good information online about it, and I sort of did my own investigations about the course. Unfortunately, I hadn't been able to attend any open days because it all sort of started at the time when everything was closing down due to the current pandemic, but there was a lot of good information online and I was able to find out a lot of details about the course. I ended up contacting he University about UCAS and they were very, very helpful in terms of guiding me on where to go and how to go about it. I found it very straightforward and smooth, actually, which I was pleased about. 

The online lectures and virtual learning experience have been great.

It's all been very good in terms of the experience. It’s missing out a little bit in terms of meeting people face to face, but all very good in terms of how to access learning material, speaking to lecturers and attending lectures. When I've needed to speak to any of the staff at Napier or contact them regarding any queries about the coursework, I’ve found them very helpful. I've been speaking to people via email, and I've also had Web meetings with some of the lecturers so that I could make inquiries about the learning material. They were very welcoming and encouraged that sort of contact, so I really don't feel like I've missed out on anything at all with not actually physically being on campus, which has been great. 

At that point I knew this was the course I wanted to be doing. 

There was a moment during the course last year at Napier, when we were tasked as part of one of the coursework assessments for construction cost studies to prepare and hand in a cost plan for new development within Edinburgh's Green Market. I thought that was very industry specific and actually aligns with my own personal interest within development. So having completed that was challenging, but also very rewarding. 

I don't feel like I'm being restricted to one particular avenue.

I mean, having the contacts, having the professional background, but now having access to the knowledge and the skill set that I can see that I'm going to be developing is really crucial. I can see exactly where my career might go, and I still have options at this stage. So that's great. I feel that there's a lot of flexibility there. I have made use of some of the career’s guidance as well and options have been terrific. I've had some really good chats with the team there and some meetings with respect to placement options that had been discussed, and also as to where that might fit in with my future career. So yes, I've taken full advantage of that and they've been so helpful. 

I'm really interested and quite excited about doing the dissertation and fourth year.

From my understanding it's going to involve group work, working as a team, working with other professionals within the property sector. So for example, working with architects, design, construction, those sort of aspects. So again, that's really applicable to a real-world scenario, which is exactly what you want when you're going to be faced with it in your job. 

A highlight from studying the Surveying course at Napier has been the lectures themselves.  

The lecturers all have industry experience and are able to draw on that as part of their lectures and the learning material itself. So, when you feel like you're studying things, you're also learning things that you're going to be using in the real world. So that's something that I would really highlight to anyone thinking of doing the course here.  

I would say to anyone thinking of applying for the course or any course at Napier to just go for it. 

It's a terrific University. I really feel I don't regret a single moment for joining the course. I've just been really enjoying every lecture, enjoying the experience. In terms of my advice for any students that are thinking about studying here, I would just say to enjoy the course and ask questions. The lecturers are all really helpful and are happy to answer any queries and engage in the lectures. So make the most of the tutorials. That's something that I had done, and I found it really helped with the coursework assignments that I've been doing that along the way.