Jack Pringle urges ARB to go further on ‘unnecessarily protracted’ education reforms

RIBA board chair Jack Pringle has welcomed the Architects Registration Board’s (ARB) proposed reforms to the way trainee architects gain and record their professional practical experience, while urging the regulator to go further in overhauling the current education model.

The comments follow the publication of an action plan by ARB in May, which set out changes intended to improve support for architecture students. These include a proposed new co-ordinating role for learning providers and the introduction of a standardised record of competency (ROC), aimed at ensuring more consistent and structured oversight of trainee architects’ development.

Pringle, who is also managing director of Studio Pringle, said RIBA had been calling for reform “for some time” and described the existing seven-year model to qualification and registration as “hopelessly outdated”. He added: “We would urgently like to see five-year vocational courses to RIBA qualification and ARB registration. We believe this could reduce student debt, and enhance young architects’ position in the workplace.”

He welcomed ARB’s proposed move away from a fixed minimum two-year period of practice experience, describing it as “a long time coming”, and said a more competency-focused framework would be a positive step.

The proposed reforms are based on recommendations from ARB’s independent Professional Practical Experience Commission, which highlighted inconsistencies in how trainees currently acquire experience. ARB has said it seeks to shift more of the responsibility currently placed on trainees onto educational institutions and employers.

However, Pringle claimed that ARB was putting too much emphasis on learning providers. “ARB do not have power over employers, their remit only covers learning providers, which is why they are putting the greatest responsibility onto them, which seems a poor point of leverage,” he said. “It is the RIBA who can address employers through our Corporate Membership programme.”

He also cautioned that the changes could result in additional costs to students and called for a full impact assessment to evaluate whether the reforms would genuinely “strengthen access to relevant and quality practical experience”.

ARB has confirmed that its proposed changes will be subject to public consultation, with further detail to be set out in its accreditation handbook and Standards for Learning Providers. The regulator is also inviting stakeholders to join the development process through its Architectural Educators Engagement Network.

Pringle also questioned the proposed new record of competency proposals, saying that RIBA was “uniquely placed” to support the profession through the redevelopment of its long-established Professional Education Development Record (PEDR), which currently has more than 4,000 active users.

“Training and retaining highly skilled architects from all walks of life is vital to deliver high quality, safe and sustainable architecture,” Pringle said. “We are committed to opening up routes into the profession, continuing to press ARB to follow through as quickly as possible on its long overdue and unnecessarily protracted education reform process.”