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NTNU – THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ART
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The committee has found the evaluation work highly inspir-
ing and very interesting. The school is filled with individuals
and a community capable of critical self-reflection and rig-
orous efforts, a good combination of self-confidence with a
mix of humility and modesty. There is a mutual appreciation
between teachers and students, both being future-oriented
and committed to further development.
The committee found warm-hearted people, a good atmos-
phere and a high positive energy level. We would like to wish
them the best of luck for the future.
The mandate / assignment
The review committee has evaluated the five-year Master’s
program in Architecture and the two-year international Mas-
ters programme in Sustainable Architecture. Five different
perspectives have been taken into consideration: academic
perspective, the pedagogic perspective, sustainability, the
perspective of industry and the student perspective.
We were asked to evaluate the structure of studies (se-
quence and type of courses), portfolio of courses and fields
of competence, the pedagogical profile, the physical envi-
ronment, student admissions (recruitment, requirements
and regulations), the evaluation system and organisational
aspects.
Evaluation process
The committee has chosen a broad process of engagement,
including workshops and a large number of interviews
with faculty leaders, teachers and students. The aim of the
process was for the faculty to gain insight and knowledge
about fundamental aspects of their educational delivery,
core values, identity and tradition. At the same time the
process enables the faculty to use the evaluation findings as
a resource to adapt and further develop the two programs.
The levels of aspiration impressed the evaluation commit-
tee. We found that the students, teachers and faculty were
future-oriented, highly reflective with a strong tradition of
collaboration, a hospitable culture and a climate of intellec-
tual rigour.
Knowledge, skills and values – transformative learning
Threshold concepts require a
transformation
of more basic
concepts, so that these become aligned with an emerging
structure of understanding that fosters distinctive
ways of
thinking and practising
within a profession.
The formation of the architect who will be able to respond
appropriately and effectively to a society determined by com-
plexity, uncertainty, risk and speed could be usefully consid-
ered in terms of the
knowledge
, the
skills
and the
values
they
will need to acquire.
A pressing challenge for the School is to reach consensus on
which skills, knowledge and values should be emphasised
and experienced within the curriculum.
The architect
There is a discussion at the school about the changing role
of the architect and how to educate architects for the future.
But the future role is not fully defined and thus the skills,
knowledge and values not fully developed.
There are a number of potential unique selling points (USPs)
– live studios, planning abroad, TransArk, being a technical
university, sustainable architecture and the physical space.
But the committee believe these need to be further devel-
oped to become effective USPs.
Structure
The overall structure of education has a clear separation
of Bachelor and Masters. There is a variety of teachers and
many areas of competence. The Bachelor´s level (first three
years of Master) seems well planned, with all basics covered
after running the same structure for several years. The Mas-
ters’ semesters provide freedom of choice, but there seems
to be a lack of coherence between the academic content
offered. The theoretical subjects need more focus. And there
remains a question of how to implement the theoretical
courses, in addition to what subjects are important.
Executive summary