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that bring together components nominally identified as engineering and architectural, are increasingly possible without reducing the integrity of either subject and in doing so be able to be recognised by both the RIBA and the JBM or CIBSE. There is however currently no agreement between professional bodies that an accredited engineering programme would be recognised as fulfilling any part of the RIBA (2010) criteria for chartership (and vice versa). There are however instances where components which form part of an accredited architecture programme are also taken by engineering students as part of an accredited engineering programme.
INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMMES There are currently 48 Universities which run RIBA accredited architecture programmes and there are 18 Universities who run one or more programmes that, according to their UCAS descriptions, offer a mixture of engineering and architectural components. The number of such programmes is steadily increasing over time (see Figure 1) according to the lists of accredited programmes held by CIBSE (2015b) and the JBM (2015). These interdisciplinary programmes vary considerably in what they offer. The architectural components range from being 25% to 70% of the assessed programme content (depending on how the architectural content is defined). The architectural components selected can focus only on architectural design projects or focus only on topics such as humanities and technology lectures or a mixture of both. The logistics of teaching these components can be different, from being taught by a local architecture department alongside students studying an accredited architecture degree to being taught as components run solely for the interdisciplinary programme. This can involve being taught by tutors directly employed by engineering departments. The engineering components chosen can also vary their focus from building physics to structural and civil engineering, but are predominantly taught in engineering departments. All these interdisciplinary programmes are either accredited by the JBM or CIBSE. The majority of these programmes are currently unrecognised and unregulated by the architectural professional bodies (ARB and the RIBA), except in three cases; the BEng in Architecture and Environmental Engineering at the University of the West of England (accredited by CIBSE and RIBA), the MEng in Structural Engineering and Architecture at the University of Sheffield (accredited by both the JBM and RIBA) and the MEng in Architecture and Environmental Design, University of Nottingham (accredited by CIBSE and RIBA) (RIBA, 2015). It is difficult for students to move at any point from studying engineering to studying architecture and gain professional recognition. It is not as difficult in terms of professional recognition to move from studying architecture to engineering due to the ICE’s Academic Assessment route which allows those holding qualifications unaccredited by the JBM or CIBSE to be assessed and where appropriate they are counted towards achieving engineering chartership. It is currently extremely hard for interdisciplinary architecture and engineering programmes to gain and maintain architectural accreditation because: 1. The EU Directive 2005/36/EC (EC, 2005), enforced by ARB requires an accredited award to be principally in architecture. Principally is noted by the UK Architectural Education Review Group (2013) to be interpreted to mean 80% of its content. The