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The Development of a Policy on Architecture for Scotland: Report on the Public Consultation

19.0 ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION

19.1 Respondents acknowledged the interdependence of education and practice and the importance of the quality, scope and content of architectural education to the realisation in practice of good architecture. Respondents’ comments underlined the difficulties of reconciling the expectations of an academic education within a university tradition with the expectations of practice for appropriate vocational training. It was noted that both the practice of architecture and the construction industry were undergoing considerable changes and that these changes were making new demands on an architect’s skills and competencies.

19.2 Respondents noted a number of issues which, it was suggested, were adversely affecting architectural education. Concern was expressed about recent increases in student numbers, the impact this was having on staff/student ratios and the consequent reduction in contact teaching time. Respondents noted the importance of involving practices in teaching but expressed concern that the increasing demands of practice were reducing the opportunities for this. Several respondents contrasted the investment required to underwrite a seven year course of study in architecture with the low pay and status students of architecture can expect to receive on completion of their studies. It was suggested that this may act as a disincentive to talented students considering a career in architecture.

19.3 Respondents noted a number of specific subject areas in which it was felt there were either deficiencies in current teaching or that insufficient emphasis was given. These subjects included:

• the technical, financial and managerial aspects of practice;
• design in the context of existing buildings;
• the principles of urban design;
• conservation and the use and detailing of traditional materials;
• inclusive design and designing for the disabled; and
• ecological and sustainable design.

19.4 Respondents put forward a number of suggestions as to how architectural education might be improved and its relation to practice strengthened. Several respondents suggested that there was too a sharp a divide between the period of academic education and the development in practice of post-graduation skills. Respondents noted that responsibility for the development of these post-graduation skills fell, at present, almost entirely to practice with no support or involvement from the schools of architecture. Respondents suggested that closer links between practice and academia should be encouraged both by accrediting practice-based learning and by promoting the concept of teaching practices which would be able to attract credit-based funding.

19.5 A number of respondents noted the increasingly inter-disciplinary nature of design and construction practice. It was suggested that this should be recognised in studio-based teaching and that greater opportunities should exist for cross-disciplinary education. Respondents noted that this was one of the recommendations of Lord Rogers’ Urban Task Force¹⁵. Several respondents noted, in particular, that opportunities for post-graduate training in planning and urban design had diminished in recent years. It was suggested that this had led to a limited number of graduates with both architectural and urban design qualifications being available to local authority planning departments. Respondents suggested that this under representation of architects in the planning profession reinforced the impression that the interests of architecture and planning were mutually exclusive.

19.6 Opinion was divided amongst respondents as to the value of a national strategy on architectural education. Some respondents suggested that the development of a national strategy would focus discussion on common concerns in architectural education. Others, however, pointed out that regulation of the profession was a reserved matter and that the validation of academic courses was carried out within a UK framework. Respondents were concerned that a move to separate validation and awards processes would mean that Scottish schools would not be able to attract students from outwith Scotland. There was, however, considerable support for greater co-operation between the schools of architecture to allow students inter-school access to shared resources, to provide specialisation at graduate/post-graduate level and to support theco-ordination of bids for research funds. It was also suggested that a Scottish graduate design school should be established to provide a centre of excellence for post-graduate design programmes which could attract internationally acclaimed designers and teachers and encourage the most creative design students to remain in Scotland.

19.7 Several respondents suggested that the schools of architecture should establish closer links with their local communities and that there could be mutual benefits in this. It was suggested that students would benefit from community involvement in projects and exposure to potential users of buildings and that the schools could provide resources for adult education and local outreach programmes.

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