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NTNU – THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ART
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Research
It is not currently clear how the School’s teaching provision
is complemented by staff research interest and by PhD
research. To what extent might the School’s provision be
deemed ‘Research –led’? Do the research interests of
teachers enrich the programme design in an informed and
strategic fashion or are they somewhat idiosyncratic and
perhaps distort the programme into unintended directions?
How can staff research and supervised doctoral research
within the School be used as strategic tool for future pro-
gramme development, eg with research topics being offered
as strategic student choices as opposed to a professor-led
(ie provider led) choice of research topics)
How would the School characterise its Research-Teaching-
nexus. Are students de facto passive consumers of profes-
sorial research or more like co-enquirers and co-producers
of architectural knowledge? How and where is this nexus
communicated within and outside of the School?
Staff recruitment and training
How are teaching staff recruited and trained in the School?
Is there a prevailing assumption that good architects will
automatically translate into good teachers. How are new
teaching staff (including part-time or casually appointed
adjunct staff) inducted into the NTNU philosophy or vision?
What model of quality assurance exists here, with some
staff described as recruited occasionally ‘from the ‘streets’?
Should there be a minimum required level of professional
development in architectural pedagogy for all staff, and
ongoing CPD for those who wish to pursue architectural
education further?
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
There is a need for more systematic approaches to quality
assurance (QA) and quality enhancement (QE). Current
approaches seem somewhat sporadic and informal.
There is a need to keep a School Risk Register to monitor
‘countdown factors’ (ie perceptible, predictable risks) and
‘blow up factors’ less perceptible risk factors but with poten-
tially catastrophic effects.
Research agendas need to be harmonised with the needs of
degree programmes, and research used as a strategic tool
for development.
There is a need for more helpful and explicit course docu-
mentation.
A more considered approach needs t be taken to staffing
issues of recruitment, selection, welfare, workload and
training.
The following model may help to indicate the interrelated-
ness of all developmental policy initiatives, whereby inter-
vention on any one of the sides (elements) of the triangle
will have a corresponding effect on the two other sides
(elements).
Staff development
Institutional
development
Curriculum development