Roadmap to recognition: Supporting international certification recognition

Important changes have taken place in the last few months:

• between the UK leaving the European Union,

• potential changes in how the UK recognises international qualifications being considered,

• the pandemic still going strong

• (How is this impacting upon current lines of enquiry)
  
  support for foreign nationals willing to register as architects in the UK has never been more needed.

  (How many foreign nations are trying to get their qualifications recognised?)

  Difference between being recognised and the conversion process in uk?
  
  We are happy to announce that over the past few months, NDSA have been working on an exciting new project called “Roadmap to Recognition”.

We have been reaching out to former ARB prescribed examination candidates who passed prescribed examinations in the past and who were happy to share their experiences and extracts of their portfolio of evidence.

Our aim is to showcase how the ARB criteria can be met in different ways by candidates from various backgrounds and with different levels of experience.

We are processing all the information we have gathered so far and look forward to sharing it in the following weeks.

The evolving legal context

The UK has now officially left the European union. This means that the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive that was in place until now, has ceased to apply starting from 1st January 2021. - to what extent did the MRPQD facilitate EU nationals? What were the requirements of those in gaining mutual recognition (simply submit degrees for example?)

(What date?) The government has launched a Public consultation on proposed amendments to the Architects Act 1997 (more details here [add link]) Proposed amendments to the regulation of architects - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and is considering its approach to the recognition of professional qualifications from other countries through a system independent from EU law. This may or may not affect recognition of international qualifications and we are keeping a close eye on the outcomes.

(How have the RIBA officially responded to this? what did they say, who did it go to in Gov?)

The interim arrangements in place however mean that for the moment, there have been no changes in the way the ARB recognises international qualifications: candidates who hold non-UK and non-EU qualifications still need to seek the Part 1 and Part 2 recognition through the ARB prescribed exams.

What does this route typically entail? and How successful are applications as a % of submissions? In what ways are it restrictive? What are the barrier to entry as expressed by ARB? What are RIBAs comments on this subject (have you asked)?

We hope that our project will help support candidates preparing for the prescribed exams and encourage many others to apply.