UCEM Property Awards 2020 – Our Academic Excellence nominees: Adam King
Posted on: 9 October, 2020
We will be hosting the 33rd UCEM Property Awards on Thursday, 15 October. Due to COVID-19, we will not be able to hold this in person but we will be sharing videos and announcements throughout the day on our social media channels to celebrate the achievements of our nominees and winners.
The event will see a sixth person receive our Academic Excellence Award since it was added to the Property Awards in 2015.
The Academic Excellence Award recognises the academic excellence and quality of a student’s research/dissertation submission.
In the lead-up to 15 October, we will be profiling each of the nominees for this Award. Our final Academic Excellence nominee is Adam King, who critically evaluated affordable workspace planning policies in the London borough of Hackney in relation to the Shoreditch office market for his dissertation project.
Adam graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. The shortage of available jobs at the time meant that he was willing to try something new and he managed to secure an Assistant Property Manager position at The Estate Office Shoreditch Ltd – a family owned investment company based in East London.
Adam soon realised that his background in mathematics could be applied to many different areas in real estate and he progressed to a more analytical role in the company, with responsibilities including development appraisal, business planning and performance analysis. Despite originally seeing it as a temporary opportunity, due to the continued development of his knowledge and responsibilities, Adam has now been at the company for more than 10 years. He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 2019 and completed UCEM’s MSc Real Estate programme earlier this year.
As part of the MSc Real Estate programme, Adam conducted a research project critically evaluating affordable workspace planning policies in The London Borough of Hackney and whether they effectively address the key issues needed to sustain small business growth in the Shoreditch office market. Having worked for a company that targets small businesses in the area, Adam has first-hand experience in witnessing the growth that small businesses and start-ups experienced following the financial crisis. His research explores the reasons why this growth is dwindling and how planning policy could be improved to help support future growth.
Commenting on the nomination, Adam said: “After the countless hours and long nights that I spent working on my dissertation, it was such a relief just to achieve the grade I was hoping for. To then be nominated for this award was completely unexpected, and it’s a real pleasure to be recognised for all the hard work.”
Reflecting on his studies with UCEM, Adam added: “The variety of resources provided by UCEM in the virtual learning environment [VLE] was excellent. It was ideal for my needs as it meant I could study at my own pace alongside my other personal/professional commitments. Even though I did not get to meet my tutors or fellow classmates in person, there were many opportunities to interact with them both in the forums and during the webinars.”
What are Adam’s recollections of writing his dissertation? And what advice would he give to others embarking on writing assignments? “Before I had even started the course, I was dreading the idea of having to write a dissertation,” he shared. “I have always hated writing essays and was able to avoid them completely while studying my undergraduate degree in mathematics.
“My main advice would be to play to your strengths; if, like me, you are more of a numbers person, try to choose a topic where you can gather a lot of numerical data which you can analyse. Also, choose a topic that you already have some prior knowledge about and that you would be interested in researching further. Finally, just write something! There is nothing worse than staring at an empty screen to make you panic. Write anything you can think of and it helps get your ideas out, you can always go back and amend/delete it afterwards.”
What’s next for Adam? “Having a rest! Studying while working full time was exhausting but has been worth it. I have since qualified as a Chartered Surveyor so will be focused on progressing my career in real estate.”
Thanks for sharing your story, Adam – enjoy the rest and all the best for the Awards and your continued career progression!
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