Study programme

Do you see yourself creating workplaces where employees can flourish? Or come up with a sustainable solution for the redevelopment of a building? The master Facility and Real Estate Management (FREM) at the Hotel Management School Maastricht prepares you for the most diverse and challenging positions! The programme connects the world of Real Estate with the world of Facility Management. With the right hospitality attitude, you will ensure that these two worlds work together on a 'place to be'.

You see these skyscrapers when you go on a study trip to London during your Facility Management master's.

Become part of an international and dynamic group of students coached by passionate experts and academics, who will help you to reach your full potential. You will be challenged to excel. In this intensive programme you will work on interesting cases, pitches, group discussions and assignments.

What will you learn?

You will learn how to help organizations achieve their goals by providing attractive working environments, suitable facilities, and good accommodation. At the same time, you take into account planet (e.g. use of materials and CO2 emissions), people (welfare and health) and prosperity (affordability and operating costs).

We also teach you to discover what type of leadership suits you and the context in which you operate, how to manage change and how to convince others of the usefulness of your plans and proposals. Last but not least, we also make you a (positive!) critical thinker; someone who reflects and reasons logically, who substantiates their statements and asks questions to get to the core.

Almost half of the master in Facility and Real Estate Management consists of research, in the Academic Skills course and during your thesis. During these components, you design your own research proposal to solve a specific problem.

Study programme fulltime in 1 year

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Study programme part-time in 2 years

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Strategic Facility Management

The Strategic Facility Management module is all about the question 'How do you increase the added value of FREM?'. You will cover the following themes while keeping in mind how you can save on costs: facilities that are in line with the strategy of the organization, 'the perfect match' between supply and demand, integrated management, insourcing and outsourcing, cooperation with the market, value-driven purchasing (best value procurement), saving costs and increasing quality up without losing sight of sustainability.

Strategic Building Management

The Master's in Facility and Real Estate Management also has a Strategic Building Management module. Here you focus on strategic real estate planning. You zoom in on a specific building and 'measure' the wishes and requirements of the users and the performance that the building offers. You compare and define the (possible) mismatch and develop a strategy to minimize this. Eventually, you translate that strategy into a tactical plan.

Strategic Business Management

In this module you will develop your knowledge of personal leadership, management, change management, business strategies, cultures (within a country/company), structure, power and politics, human resource management and their impact on primary and supporting processes. You learn how (organizing) supporting processes can contribute to organizational goals in a sustainable way. You will also discover and strengthen your own personal leadership in an innovative and challenging way. You will formulate a vision of your leadership style and present it to the group.

Strategic Asset Management

Within the Strategic Asset Management module you will analyze the capital market and investment sector from a broader perspective. In view to potential risks, you will investigate the financial structure and performance of real estate assets (within specific market conditions and real estate portfolio). At the same time, you look at the assessment of a property based on market trends, operating data, predicted returns and property values. You learn to analyze financial reports on a general level. You also learn to handle and assess the FREM Planning and Control procedures in an ethical and professional manner.

Academic Skills

During the Academic Skills module, you will pay attention to critical thinking and research methodology. This will give you everything you need to successfully complete your research proposal and thesis; from developing a good research question to designing appropriate research methods. You will also make grateful use of what you learn in Academic Skills for the assignments of the other modules. This includes citing sources, avoiding pitfalls in reasoning and recognizing and selecting reliable and relevant sources.

Thesis

With your thesis you distinguish yourself and push the boundaries of Facility and Real Estate Management. You will conduct research into a phenomenon or problem that occurs in practice and thereby add something to 'the body of knowledge' of the field. Something that helps to make the studied phenomenon or problem more manageable, to indicate solutions. As a critical and independent thinker, you conduct research into a subject of your own choosing within the field of FREM. An example: hybrid working can no longer be ignored. But how do you organize and regulate this in a way that your m2 use is responsible, working from home is facilitated and the sense of community remains? To find answers you use international, academic literature, but also interviews, a survey and focus groups are often used by FREM students. Your challenge is ultimately to develop conclusions and recommendations with impact. The final product? Your calling card for the industry!

The difference between full-time and part-time

The Hotel Management School Maastricht offers a one-year (full-time) or two-year (part-time) master programme in cooperation with the University of Greenwich. You'll obtain a double master degree. The programme is fully taught in English and both start in September. Thursday and Friday are the regular teaching days for both full-time and part-time. The rest of the week you manage your own activities: preparing lessons, processing notes and looking for more depth on items from recent lessons and working on your assignments (in the form of papers, presentations, pitches, etc.).

In addition to the part-time variant lasting 2 years instead of 1 year, you also have more opportunities to work alongside your studies. Experience shows that the combination of working and studying in the full-time master is possible, as long as the number of working hours per week remains limited (think of a maximum of 2 days per week). The study load during the full-time year can really be called full-time; hence the advice to limit working.
In the part-time variant, more is possible. What can and cannot be done is very personal. Consider for example, family situation and the like. We are happy to advise you!

Please note: Non-EU students can only apply for the full-time master as this is a requirement for obtaining a study visa.

Cooperation with the University of Greenwich

The cooperation with the University of Greenwich means more than just receiving a double master's degree. The study programme of FREM has been approved by the University of Greenwich, they ensure that the programme meets their quality standards as a research university in various ways. This ultimately has a positive effect on the value and recognition of your diplomas! In addition, as a FREM student you have access to all UoG systems, including their digital library. This means you'll have access to countless international scientific resources and papers. A huge advantage for your thesis research!

Study trip to London

Part of the study programme is the study trip to London! During the trip you will visit various hotspots in the field of real estate, working environments and facilitating them. New concepts such as coworking, proptech applications and multipurpose buildings are visited and explained. You 'view' buildings on the basis of a specific checklist, which is also discussed in the Strategic Building Management module. This will make you look at real estate with different eyes.

We also visit the University of Greenwich. Here you follow a few lectures that fit FREM and you visit the historic buildings and their modern functions. Of course there is also room for relaxation: a cozy pub dinner is also part of the trip!