Criteria & Procedures Review
In order to ensure that the qualifications and practical training experience UK graduates need for registration as an architect are appropriate, the Board has established Criteria and Procedures. The Board uses these documents to prescribe or recognise qualifications in architecture. These are reviewed regularly and are updated as necessary.

At September’s meeting, the Board noted an update on the progress of the reviews which included the following:

Procedures Task and Finish Group
Work has continued on the revising the Procedures over the Summer period. The team are awaiting further clarification regarding the structure and content of the revised Criteria before finalising a draft of the revised Procedures. Once a draft has been finalised the Procedures Task and Finish Group and the Criteria Task and Finish Group will be brought together to discuss whether the relevant elements of the Procedures will continue to be operable in line with the Board’s objectives for this business as usual review.

Criteria Task and Finish Group
At an informal meeting between the Board and the Criteria Task and Finish Group in late July, the Board members present raised several queries about some aspects of the draft Criteria and asked the Task and Finish Group to undertake some further work. The Board discussed a revised draft of the Criteria at its September meeting and agreed that ARB should now re-engage with the RIBA to develop the Criteria further. Both organisations continue to share the aim of holding the Criteria in common.’

We post updates on this project on our website here.

Prescribed Examinations Review
The Prescribed Examination is a way for individuals who do not hold qualifications directly recognised by ARB to progress towards registering as an architect in the UK. This review aims to explore whether our current procedures are fit for purpose, efficient and as streamlined as possible while remaining robust.

Across June, July and August we invited comments from architects, students and other key stakeholders on the Examination Procedures and held open roundtable events in Nottingham and London, where we sought views from interested parties.

The pre-consultation stage is now concluded and we are compiling the views of everyone who engaged with us and will use this information to help inform the revisions we make to improve, refine and streamline the process. We will hold a further consultation once we have redrafted the Examination Procedures.

You can find out more about this review here.

Section 14 Review
In May 2018, the Board accepted in principle recommendations arising from a pre-consultation exercise and internal review into the way we investigate allegations of serious misconduct and incompetence against registered architects.

These recommendations have now been formalised into proposed changes to the relevant Rules and we now consulting on these proposed changes. If you would like to give us your views on the suggested changes to the Investigation and Professional Conduct Committee rules, you can do so here.