I wasn’t surprised to read this report, although I can’t help wondering what longer term impact the recession will have on architectural education. I’m more concerned about the numbers of lesser experienced part one or part two graduates now entering a barren jobs market.
BD magazine: Applications for architecture degrees rocket
8 February, 2009
By Anna Winston
The number of students applying to study architecture at undergraduate level has rocketed by almost 2000 in a year despite the onset of the recession.
A snapshot of applications taken by UCAS this month showed 24,126 prospective students have applied to study architecture, up by 6.7% compared to last year.
The rise in applications was given a cautious welcome by the RIBA and heads of schools body Schosa, who warned there could be problems ahead for those choosing to pursue parts two and three.
“This is good news – a little flame in the recession,” Robert Mull, chair of Schosa said.
“Often recessions are very creative times for architectural thought in schools of architecture. A lot of the intellectual spade-work gets done during these periods so it’s not surprising that people wish to return to or start education.”
…
[my emphasis]
The UCAS statistics also showed that applications to planning degrees have dropped by 18.7% to 2,985 while the number of applications to building degrees dropped 7.6%.
“That needs to be looked at because there’s a desperate need for more planners,” said Paul Davis, chairman of Paul Davis and Partners and former president of the ACA. “Maybe [architecture and planning] could balance their intakes a bit better if they combined.”
Despite the best intentions of those institutions offering dual honours degrees in architecture and planning, a real step change would be required for the two disciplines to ‘combine’.
Filed under: blog, Academia, architecture, news, Profession, recession, students, university
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