Managing Campus Real Estate in Malaysian Public Universities: The Plausible Role of the CREM Department

Abstract

Aside from the real estate sector, all businesses including universities-tend to incorporate CREM knowledge into managing their resources to increase revenues and support their primary business functions. An ideal CREM department in an organisation strives to assist core business operations by aligning its physical resources with its strategic goals and fostering organisational success. The roles of the CREM Department include maximising shareholder wealth through cost minimisation initiatives and leveraging real estate as a competitive enabler to capitalise on setbacks and turn them into opportunities for organisational advantages. This study investigated the existence of CREM portfolios in Malaysian public universities and their current job functions, considering the ideal CREM department from the literature. The study adopts a qualitative approach that involves thematic extraction and analysis of secondary data from the official websites of all 20 public universities. In addition, the investigation was supported by the results from an online survey. The findings suggest that few universities have established an adequate structure for strategically managing campus real estate. Most universities have separate departments responsible for each role, making up an ideal CREM portfolio. Despite being viewed as crucial to the digital revolution of teaching and learning in higher education, the ICT Division is not included in the CREM portfolio. This paper concludes that the CREM Department must be seen as indispensable to the institution and function as a stand-alone business unit that plays a pivotal role in real estate decision-making. A better understanding of CREM knowledge has proven beneficial to organisational success and aids in empowering higher education institutions. Therefore, findings could be significant in directing public universities and government officials to manage campus real estate towards maximising the higher education sector’s overall efficacy.