2.2 CRITICAL LACK OF EDUCATIONAL CAPACITY
There is a lack of educational and institutional capacity to grow the professions fast enough in many Commonwealth countries. The findings of the 2017 survey revealed that, while lack of capacity among built environment professionals is a serious issue in a number of Commonwealth countries, the rate at which the profession is growing in these countries is also insufficient to achieve the sort of ratios found in OECD countries owing to the relatively small number of undergraduate places available for built environment professionals. The findings of the 2019 survey reveal that lack of educational capacity remains a concern and that this is affecting each of the principal built environment professions to a greater or lesser extent. By way of example, the ratio of schools of architecture per million head of population in Commonwealth countries which are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), ie Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, is 0.587, whereas in Nigeria it is 0.362. Lack of planning schools is an even greater concern. In OECD countries, the ratio of planning schools per million head of population is 0.729 whereas in Nigeria it is only 0.179, a fourfold difference. These figures are particularly concerning when one considers that Nigeria is forecast to add a further 180million urban dwellers in the next 30 years. Figure 10 Proportion of professional associations requiring mandatory continuing professional development Architects, Mandatory CPD?
37%
While the training of undergraduates is a concern, so too is the need to ensure existing members of the profession are equipped with appropriate up-to-date knowledge to deal with the range of challenges being faced in a rapidly changing world. Figure 10 illustrates the fact that the provision of mandatory continuing professional development remains a challenge for many respondents owing to lack of resources and/or institutional capacity.
63%
The following figures (Figures 11-14) and tables (Tables 10-13) illustrate the capacity gap which exists for each of the principle built environment disciplines.
Planners, Mandatory CPD?
44%
Respondents were also invited to comment on some of the key challenges facing the education of built environment professions. These are covered in Chapter 2.4 and include poorly skilled and unqualified teaching staff together with outdated curriculum, ie it is not simply the number of graduates which is an issue but also the quality of the education they are receiving. Indeed, the need for curriculum review to better reflect the challenges of climate change and sustainable urbanisation is widely recognised in many parts of the Commonwealth28.
28 See p13, Chapter 5.0 Knowledge and competence’, ‘RIBA Ethics and
56%
Sustainable Development Commission’: https://www.architecture.
Yes No
Survey of the Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth
com/‐/media/GatherContent/Work‐with‐Us/Additional‐Documents/ Ethics‐and‐Sustainable‐ Development‐Commission‐‐Full‐ findingspdf.pdf
29