Architects' Registration Council of The United Kingdom - Qualification

Qualification

For ascertaining whether a person who claimed to be entitled to be registered was duly qualified, the Act required the Council to appoint annually a Board of Architectural Education referred to in the Act as "the Board", and a committee referred to in the Act as "the Admissions Committee".

The constitution of the Board was prescribed by the Second Schedule to the Act. By the Act two duties were ascribed to the Board, namely, to hold examinations in architecture in accordance with the Act, and to make recommendations to the Council in two respects, namely:

• the recognition of any examinations in architecture the passing of which ought, in the opinion of the Board, to qualify persons for registration under the Act; and
• the holding of any examination in architecture which ought, in the opinion of the Board, to be passed by applicants for registration under the Act.

The constitution of the Admissions Committee was prescribed in the Third Schedule to the Act. The duty ascribed by the Act to the Admissions Committee was to consider every application for registration under the Act and to report thereon to the Council as to whether the applicant was, in the opinion of the Committee, qualified for registration.

Before a person who had duly applied to the Council could become entitled to be registered, the Act required the Council to be satisfied on a report of the Admission Committee that the applicant was qualified in one of four respects, namely:

• membership of the Royal Academy or of the Royal Scottish Academy; or
• practising as an architect in the United Kingdom at the commencement of the Act; or
• having passed any examination in architecture which was for the time being recognised by the Council; or
• possessing "the prescribed qualifications".

The Council was required to make regulations in respect of anything which by the Act was to be prescribed, but no regulations of the Council were to be of any force or validity without the prior approval of the Privy Council.

Among other things, the 1996 Act abolished the statutory Board of Architectural Education and the Admissions Committee (subsection 118(2)).