International routes to the UK Register of Architects: Survey for Employers

Overview

About ARB 

The Architects Registration Board (ARB) is an independent professional regulator, established by Parliament as a statutory body, through the Architects Act 1997. We are accountable to government. The law gives us a number of core functions:  

• To ensure only those who are suitably competent are allowed to practise as architects. We do this by approving the qualifications required to join the UK Register of Architects. 
• We maintain a publicly available Register of Architects so anyone using the services of an architect can be confident that they are suitably qualified and are fit to practise. 
• We set the standards of conduct and practice the profession must meet and take action when any architect falls below the required standards of conduct or competence. 
• We protect the legally restricted title ‘architect’.

International routes to UK registration 

The Architects Act 1997 places on ARB the responsibility for prescribing (accrediting) the qualifications and practical training experience required for entry to the UK Register of Architects. The Board also has a duty to ensure that those who apply for registration without accredited qualifications have an equivalent standard of competence. ARB runs a Prescribed Exam so that professionals with relevant qualifications in architecture – but that aren’t accredited by ARB or recognised through an international agreement – have a route to registration. ARB also runs the UK Adaptation Assessment (UKAA), which applies to architects seeking to join the UK Register through one of our international agreements. This assessment tests an individual’s preparedness for practise within a UK context.

This survey

This survey is about how internationally qualified architects gain access to the UK Register and whether ARB is applying adequate and proportionate assessments to ensure the public is protected. 

This survey is for employers of architects with international qualifications. If you would like to share your views as an individual architect with international qualifications, please use this separate survey.

You are welcome to complete both surveys if both are relevant to you. 

Following the UK’s exit from the European Union and supported by changes to legislation, ARB has been enabled to enter into Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with equivalent authorities internationally. All agreements developed by ARB rely on an assessment of the accredited qualifications available in the country or jurisdiction in question, and robust quality assurance mechanisms to give us confidence that qualified architects have achieved the relevant standards. ARB also developed a new, proportionate assessment (the UK Adaptation Assessment, or UKAA) which provides confidence to the Board, and the public through the Board, that any candidate applying through the MRA route has familiarised themselves with the UK context and was ‘ready’ to practice in the UK. 

These three elements, taken together, form the basis of the MRAs signed between the UK and Australia, New Zealand and the United States. ARB is also developing agreements with other jurisdictions, including the European Union. 

ARB would like to gather feedback from employers about their experiences in employing EU architects and their readiness to practise in the UK (as distinct from their technical competence as an architect).

We are also interested in where larger practices work internationally or recruit from, to inform potential future agreements, and about the UK adaptation assessment in general, to feed into our work on overhauling the Prescribed Exam and rationalising routes to registration.

Why your views matter

This survey will gather evidence for the Board to consider as we develop MRAs with the EU and other countries, and as we develop a new assessment model to replace the Prescribed Exam. It is vital that ARB understands the practicalities of employment and practice, and the preparedness of architects to join the UK Register. This is essential as part of ARB’s important duty to uphold the standards of public protection within the architectural profession and ensure only those who are suitably competent are allowed to practise as architects. This means the public can be reassured that those who join the Register are suitably qualified and are fit to practise. 

The survey will close at 23:59 on Monday 5 February 2024. 

This survey is for employers of architects with international qualifications. If you would like to share your views as an individual architect with international qualifications, please use this separate survey.