New architecture course to be completely restructured

The Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta has embarked on a restructuring process of the courses it offers to professionals aspiring to work in the building industry and the built environment.

This year, the Society of Architecture and Civil Engineering Students’ (SACES) Designs Exhibition, which is held every year within the Faculty for the Built Environment, was set up by the society to raise public awareness on changes going on within the faculty.

By displaying various student projects and designs, SACES hopes to educate the public on the useful work carried out by the faculty and how the new course structure will help improve the overall quality of education.

The current five-year degree leading to a Bachelor degree in engineering and architecture is being phased out over the next four years, and is being replaced by a two-cycle degree system, which conforms to the Bologna Declaration. The Bologna Declaration envisages the adoption of a system of degrees, based on credits, common to all European universities.

Course structures will be based on three cycles, one building on the previous structure. The objective of each level is to prepare the student for the trans-European market, and also to build further professional competence. The three levels are Bachelor, Master’s and Doctoral.

The first-tier degree, at Bachelor level, will be preceded by a diploma course in Design Foundation Studies, which has opened for the first time this month, and which will provide the transition between advanced level secondary education and the design-based skills required for a successful uptake of the degrees leading to professional careers in architecture, civil and structural engineering, planning, construction management and conservation architects/engineers.

The course will offer training in basic design-related tools and visual literacy and communication skills. Units offered will include training in graphical communication, in the use of computers and computer graphics, photography, free-hand drawing and colour appreciation, as well as oral and written communication.

Following successful completion of the diploma course, a student will be eligible to register for a three-year Bachelor degree. This first-tier degree will be more flexible, more multi-disciplinary and more international than it has been to date, and will offer more opportunities for trans-European exchange programmes.

The first-tier level course should allow for the study of architectural and structural/civil engineering and planning subjects, in preparation for entry to the ‘graduate school’ stage of studies, while allowing candidates to delay, as much as possible, the final decision on which particular professional discipline they intend to follow.

The proposed professional Master’s degree programmes emerge from the current, final two-year study streams into fully-fledged 120-credit postgraduate degree courses, which impart specific professional competencies. The award of the Master’s degree will give access to one of the three main regulated professions related to the built environment, as recognised at European level.

The objective of these three professional Master’s degrees would be to ensure that the respective graduates would qualify for the titles of architect, engineer and planner respectively, as defined at European level, and to achieve professional status in Malta (the warrant of Perit), and in Europe (the regulated titles of architect and of European engineer).

Further specialised and research-based study will also be available through specialisation Master’s degree programmes, such as the Master of Science in Conservation Technology of Masonry Structures, or research degrees such as Master of Science, or Doctor of Philosophy.

These developments allow the faculty to move away from a single professional degree course, addressing only architecture and civil engineering, to a faculty that, within the limitations of the University’s resources, addresses the wider issues relevant to the quality of the built environment in Malta and abroad.

The SACES Designs Exhibition remains open until Friday at the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University.