This week ARB published new safety and sustainability guidance for all institutions offering ARB-recognised qualifications, which will take effect from September 2021.

As the independent regulator, ARB sets the criteria for schools of architecture in the UK, so that we can recognise their qualifications and their students can qualify as architects. Last year, architects told us that safety and sustainability have become more important in their work in the last five years, so we have been preparing to revise our guidance of how the Criteria for qualifications at Parts 1, 2 and 3 should be interpreted .

What’s changing?

The existing Criteria for qualifications is being supplemented by additional guidance on environmental sustainability and fire and life safety design. The guidance aims to ensure that architecture students are well trained to be able to design safe and sustainable buildings.

The guidance has been revised following a period of consultation between February and April 2021; thank you to all who participated. The majority of respondents (69%) agreed with our proposal that the revised guidance should take effect from September 2021. There was also agreement from most respondents (85%) that we should check on the progress of implementation through our pre-existing annual monitoring process. We want to work with institutions to afford them the necessary time and space to put in place the necessary resources and quality assurance, but we will be insisting that students are taught these important topics in sufficient detail.

Following the consultation, and the Board’s revision of the guidance, it is now updated and published. You can find it and more information on our website here.

To read more about the responses we received and the changes we made as a result, you can read our full consultation report here.

What’s next?

Institutions are being issued with the new guidance and asked to develop a plan for implementation. We understand this may take time, but we expect to see progress against the plan during the annual monitoring process.

We are currently undertaking a full review of the initial education and training of architects, and the way that we recognise qualifications so that architects can join the UK register. We will use the feedback we have received from this consultation to inform the review of ARB criteria and the importance of sustainability throughout education and training. You can stay involved in this review by joining ARB’s Architects Engagement Group.