DRIFTING APART
Partners drifting apart is a commonplace, but a recent example
is of interest to valuers. In the current issue of the Journal
of Property Investment & Finance [vol.20 no.1 2002], the
editorial refers to the dichotomy in the valuation profession.
The issues that command the attention of practitioners are very
different from those that academics choose to analyze, and the
editor, Nick French, believes the difference is growing wider.
As he recognizes, this situation has existed for some time,
and evidence that it was a concern more than twenty years ago
can be found here on this website. The Goal and the Mission
of WVC [on the 'Objectives' page] both refer to bringing practitioners
and academics together for discussion and exchange of ideas.
This was the major reason for starting WVC. Have we succeeded?
Congress is kept small deliberately and the quality of the
proceedings is not measured by the number attending, so it occupies
a niche in the profession and is in no sense a sample of it.
The proportion of academics in the total registration has not
increased and remains relatively small, but there is a factor
here that bears out an observation in the editorial.
Nick, who is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Reading,
points out that academic achievement is evaluated in part by
papers published in academic journals and those appearing in
professional journals and trade magazines do not count. Attendance
at Congress is likely to be seen by an academic to be less useful
from a publishing point of view than taking part in a conference
of academics added to which is the possibility of hearing about
employment opportunities at the latter.
Those who have read this far will be wondering why academic
journals which are approved in academe do not interest professionals
and vice versa. This takes us back to the beginning and a much
larger discussion on another day.
