AS universities tout the “rocketing” number of eager want-to-be architects lining up for study across Australia, a leading academic from the University of Newcastle has told Architecture & Design that what, and who, goes into architecture study doesn’t necessarily come out.

The number of students applying to study undergraduate architecture increased by almost 2,000 this year, despite the recession, a new report by UCAS, the central UK organisation through which higher education entry applications are processed, has found.

The increase of 6.7 per cent is not dissimilar to Australian figures, according to Professor PhD Steffen Lehmann, chair at the school of architecture, University of Newcastle. But he said his school’s increase of 5 per cent this year does not tell the whole story.

He said students soon realise their jobs prospects are not what they expected, a realisation bolstered by the current economic climate. “Job prospects are limited. Not everyone can become an architect … not everybody can be accommodated. There is not an endless demand for architects,” he said.

Suggesting we should be looking at the number of graduates coming out of architecture schools rather than the number of fresh-faced students going in, Professor Lehmann said many students soon realise architecture is not what they expected.

“ Students realise ‘oh it’s not actually what I read in the flashy glossy magazine that made me believe I could become a star architect and drive around in a convertible and have a lot of girls and a lot of money and work’. But they realise it’s a lot of hard work and requirements to succeed in the profession,” said Professor Lehmann.

According to Lehmann, architecture students need to be all rounders, good in business, design, personal skills and communication, management and marketing. Very few people, he said, has every one of these skills.

“So every school has a high number of dropouts because they come in with the total wrong idea of what architecture studies may include. This is a phenomenon all over the world. Magazines, unfortunately, convey a totally wrong idea of the profession of architecture,” he said.

Kate Gibbs

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