Moving Towards Competence in Teaching Architecture: The Relationship of Research and Design in Academia

Abstract

Architecture is truly a profession of public trust requiring special care at all stages in academic education. European educational reforms initiated by the 1999 Bologna Process affected architecture education, and shifted the role of research. The number of doctoral programs increased, so the involvement of PhD students in teaching also expanded. This study aims to identify how these changes affect quality in architecture education. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, different forms of architectural education offered in the European Higher Education Area, staff selection practices, requirements for PhD candidacy, and student achievements were assessed, compared and correlated. Both the apparent imbalance of theoreticians and practitioners staffed in architecture faculties, and increased didactic obligations for inexperienced PhD students with no formal qualification seem to generally undermine competence in architectural education. The author highlights the need to revise the prerequisite for teaching in architecture faculties. She proposes the establishment of two types of faculties in this discipline: an’architecture faculty’ and a separate’theory of architecture faculty’. In the first one the accent is on the practical aspects of the profession and its graduates will be fully prepared to competent serve in construction and, in the second faculty, architecture issues will be discussed in terms of the humanities.