ABSTRACT
In April of 2008 representatives of seven architectural quality assurance agencies met in Canberra, Australia, and signed an accord which recognized that graduates of their various institutions had qualifications deemed substantially equivalent by the signatories. The signing marked an important first moment of global cooperation among accrediting agencies from six countries (Canada, the United States, Mexico, China, South Korea, Australia) and the agency validating architecture degree programs in countries of the British Commonwealth. The Canberra Accord is, however, only one example of the many international agreements and events bringing education in the design professions together globally. Design education in Europe is reviewed with respect to educational standards described as national qualifications frameworks rather than by accreditation or validation systems and these frameworks are compared internationally, as another example, for equivalency. Whether the measurement of the quality of architectural education is called validation, or accreditation, or a framework, there is a worldwide movement toward clear, transferable educational standards. The design professions are becoming increasingly globalized and the following text is a report on how the academy and quality assurance agencies are—and may be in the future—responding to that trend. The intention of this chapter is to describe current international networks of design practitioners and educators; to propose opportunities in design education that are relevant to global practices; to comment on current changes in design education; and, to add some observations on the likely international directions design education will take in the near future.
