Architectural Education

[Chris Stewart]

If I could invent the ideal system it would be a combination of real work and classroom. Early in a persons career a day may be half work half class but I think the class work should never stop. This is basically the idea behind requiring continuing education in most professions. The problem with CE currently is that it is not formal education. You get CE points for attending a trade show or taking a class sponsored by manufactures.

As the capabilities of the internet mature we will all have access to quality education online. There will most likely be some sort of mix of work, classroom, and online classes depending on what each person wants to accomplish and what is best for them.

I guess the reason for the current system is that it is easier to have very large education institutions. In my community of 200 thousand plus people there are not nearly enough part time jobs for all the ED students at our local TAMU.

Recently we have seen studies which suggest people learn better in smaller groups. I think instead of universities which have 30-50 thousand students we should make them smaller and more geographically distributed.

A person should work through many levels of proficiency which govern what they are allowed to do. Attaining higher levels would be based on class work, employer evaluation, work experience, and peer review.

We as a building industry should come together as one group. It isn't just professionals which need training but all the people who are creating our built environment. I know for example that there are a lot of frame carpenters who have very little actual knowledge of how wood structures work. Also there are far to many people designing houses that don't know what they are doing.

When I say peer review I am talking about other design professionals in your area and educators. For example my wife teaches engineering at TAMU once a year she gets evaluated by her fellow faculty and the department head. We need to be involved at the local level as a community of design professionals.

This would be the ideal system in my opinion. Both the classroom and real work experience are absolutely required for proficiency.

[Eric Hughes]

I agree with you Chris.