Select Page

Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture

At its meeting of 22 February 2022, the Board decided that the above qualification should continue to be prescribed until 10 May 2027* under Section 4(1)(a) of the Architects Act 1997 for the purposes of entry onto the United Kingdom Register of Architects.

Prescription is subject to the Standard Conditions set out in the Board’s Procedures, namely:

  1. The University of Leeds’ Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture (four years, full-time), and Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture (Industrial) (five years, full-time with placement year) qualifications should be prescribed for the period from 10 May 2022 to 10 May 2027.*
  2. Prescription of the qualifications shall be by reference to the Programme Specifications – submitted as part of the application on 10 July 2021 – for the Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture (four years, full-time), and Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture (Industrial) (five years, full-time with placement year) qualifications. No change may be made to the title of any qualification, or material change to the content so defined within a programme specification (allowing for normal course development) without first obtaining the written permission of the Board.
  3. Annually by 1 November – commencing on 1 November 2022 – the institution will be required to provide the Board with information of the nature set out in Appendix 2 of its Procedures to enable the Board to see that:
      • All its Criteria and the relevant requirements set out in Article 46 (or Article 47) of the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive [2005/36/EC] have been attained by all students awarded the prescribed qualifications;
      • Adequate systems are in place to ensure that all the Board’s Criteria will be met by students for the period of prescription;
      • The institution’s resources remain as set out in the application and are adequate; and
      • All of the factors referred to in Sections 10.2 and 10.3 of the Procedures continue to be demonstrated, and any conditions of prescription continue to be met.
  4. The institution will ensure that the appropriate procedures will be maintained so that all students undertaking a prescribed qualification are fully informed of the extent of the application of that qualification to entitlement to registration as an architect in circumstances in which the student lacks a required antecedent qualification, e.g. Part 2 without Part 1.
  5. Following each and every set of examinations, the institution shall be required to submit to the Board its pass list of graduating cohorts who have received the prescribed awards.

In addition to the Standard Conditions of prescription, the Board agreed that the following additional condition would be applicable to the qualifications under Section 13.2 of the Board’s Procedures:

  • The institution must give appropriate written warnings – in a form acceptable to the Board; and to all students, both prior to their acceptance of a place in the qualifications and prior to the awarding of the qualifications – that the qualifications may not be accepted for recognition in the European Union. A copy of the written warnings must be submitted as part of the November 2022 annual monitoring submission. To satisfy the Board of ongoing compliance with this additional condition, the institution must provide explicit confirmation as part of annual monitoring each year that the required written warnings have been issued during the reporting period; and that should those written warnings differ to those submitted to the Board in November 2022, copies of the new/revised notifications must also be supplied.

 

The Board was confident that:

  1. All students awarded the qualifications since the qualifications were prescribed or last renewed had met all the Criteria;
  2. The systems used by the institution to ensure that all students awarded the qualifications have met all the Criteria are adequate, and will continue to ensure that the Criteria are met for the future period of prescription; and
  3. The institution’s future plans and commitment are such that the institution will maintain its ability to ensure all students awarded the qualifications have met all the Criteria.

The Board agreed that the institution had provided reasonable assurance that the Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture (four years, full-time), and Master of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Architecture (Industrial) (five years, full-time with placement year) qualifications continued to satisfy the above objectives for renewal of prescription.

At the time of the Board’s decision, the Board’s policy continued to be that it should have reasonable assurance that qualifications complied with the requirements of the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive.

The Board agreed that there was not reasonable assurance that the qualifications provided three of four years of study for which either taken collectively or individually the principal component was architecture.

The Board was satisfied that there was reasonable assurance that the architectural component of the qualifications was equivalent to that required as being the principal component of a three-year Part 1 qualification but spread over four years of study.

The Board was satisfied that there was reasonable assurance that the principal component of the third and fourth years of study was architecture. However, the architectural component of the first and second years may not be regarded as principal for Directive purposes. This made the acceptance of the qualifications as Directive compliant (in accordance with guidance) for recognition in the European Union uncertain. They may only be accepted as evidencing two years of the required five years of architectural study, rather than the three years normally provided by a prescribed Part 1 qualification; and the qualifications remain untested in this regard.

The Board agreed to renew prescription of the qualifications on an exceptional basis with the stated additional condition to ensure that prospective and current students were informed that the qualifications may not be eligible for recognition in the EU under the terms of any agreement with Member States.

The Board agreed that this exception could be made and that the Board could accept a lower level of assurance that the qualifications would comply with the principally in architecture component of Article 46 of the Directive for the following reasons:

  1. The Board was satisfied that there was reasonable assurance that over the four years of study, there was sufficient coverage to be equivalent to the architectural content of a prescribed three-year Part 1;
  2. In the Board’s opinion, the dilution of the architectural content in the first two years of the qualifications was insufficient materially to undermine the assurance of overall architectural content required for prescribed Part 1 qualifications;
  3. Similar qualifications have previously been accepted in the EU, although it had not been possible to obtain any confirmation that comparable new qualifications would be acceptable;
  4. The nature of the UK’s future relationship with the EU was uncertain at the time of the renewal of prescription, and there remained the possibility that the qualifications could be accepted under the terms of a recognition agreement;
  5. If the qualifications were rejected for recognition in the EU, the Board would be able to consider the rationale for such rejection and any implications for prescription;
  6. The institution could adequately protect the position of students by warnings;
  7. The number of recipients of the qualifications was expected to be sufficiently few to allow monitoring of the required warnings in the period of prescription and until the qualifications could be considered under the terms of any mutual recognition agreement.

 

* At its meeting of 27 February 2023, the Board agreed to extend prescription until 31 December 2028.