ARCHITECTURE Dean John Joseph Fernandez represented the Philippines in the recent Architects Regional Council of Asia—Committee of Architecture Education (ACAE) meeting last June 24 in Malaysia, which discussed the architecture education and issues on licensing, cross-border studies and design competitions.
In an interview with the Varsitarian, Fernandez said Philippine architectural education was shifting from traditional teacher-centered teaching to outcome-based education, citing an upcoming 2015 Commission on Higher Education memorandum which Fernandez helped draft as a member of the drafting committee.
The Philippines would eventually be able to compete in the global architectural academe, he said, noting that the University was applying for two international accrediting bodies, namely American-based National Architectural Accrediting Board and Paris-based Union internationale des Architectes.
However, Fernandez cited problems in Asian architecture education such as the non-standardized years of education in India and Japan, wherein some schools have a four-year program and some have five.
Some Asian countries do not have a licensure examination, which could pose difficulty for 2015 ASEAN integration, he added.
Fernandez noted that unlike in the Philippines where a state-run institution facilitates the board exams, other Asian countries tap their respective national architectural organization as the licensure exam facilitator.
The ASEAN Qualification Framework gives bearing to the degree rather than a license, Fernandez said.
ACAE is proposing cross-border study for architecture students, he added.
Some of the member-countries of the organization are China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia,Vietnam and Singapore. Jerome P. Villanueva