Having read Oliver Lowrie’s recent article embracing the defunding of Level 7 apprenticeships and calling for the end of the Part 2 course, we were quite disheartened. As academics with practice experience, we felt the idea that university should be concentrating on teaching “stuff that could be charged for” and becoming ‘practice ready’ to be a very limiting view of the role academia plays in the development of our future professionals.

A visit to this year’s degree shows would clearly illustrate the intuition, thoughtfulness, creativity and, at times, shear audacity and bravery of the many undergraduate and masters level projects, all able to be produced in the context of increased academic workload, reduced admin support, and a landscape of course suspensions or closures in higher education generally.

Architectural education, particularly at masters level, is not only reflecting the views held now, but proposing projects and ideas which challenge and push our society to be the best it can be. We were often told that it takes 10 years for ideas that are developed in university to become realised in the real world. Architecture takes time.

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