BArch (hons) Architecture (Architecture and Built Environment) and BEng (hons) Architecture have been given the validation by the prestigious professional body after a two-day site visit in October that assessed the course, staffing, research and facilities. A meeting on 11 February confirmed the validation.
The RIBA visiting board commended 'the ambition and potential of UNNC’s Department of Architecture and Built Environment to develop an environment for staff and students to bring together cultural, technological and environmental understanding of international architectural influences and apply them in a Chinese context' together with the 'engagement of the industry panel to discuss and advise curriculum developments within the School.'
RIBA is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture, through professional standards, training and support for its members.
The architecture programme at UNNC was set up in 2010 as a four-year course including a preliminary year followed by three years of study designed around the standard ARB/RIBA Criteria for Prescription of Qualifications at Part 1 (2011). The programme delivered its first cohort of graduates in June 2014.
Dr Llewellyn Tang, Head of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at UNNC, said: “RIBA validation of our Part 1 programme represents a milestone in the educational mission of the department to combine the solid pedagogical tradition of skill development and enhancement of rigorous technical competence promoted by the Chinese higher education system, with the critically-informed framework of analysis and design synthesis that characterises British architectural pedagogies, underpinned by diversity in design response, sensitivity to cultural characters, and social and environmental responsibility.
“The architecture programme aims to dialogically bridge the skills, knowledge, and practices of the west with those of the east, informing its teaching by cutting-edge research, and engaging with actors of the construction industry in the Zhejiang Province, Shanghai, China, and the Asia Pacific region.
“This validation wouldn’t have been possible of course without the invaluable contributions and hard work of architecture students from all years, and of staff from both the department and the Faculty of Science and Engineering more widely, who have supported and been involved in the setting and development of the courses over the last four years.”
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