14 May 2024
The RSUA Professional Insights Programme came to an end for another year on 26 April 2024 with a closing event for student participants at Ulster University’s Belfast Campus.
Stage 2 undergraduate Architecture students from Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University came together to share their experiences of the programme.
Two students, Oileán Galligan from QUB and Colin McAleer from UU, spoke about what they’d learned through the programme. Two architects, Sarah Brady from Samuel Stevenson & Sons, and Simon Holland from the Education Authority NI, provided a focused insight on their current projects.
The insights into real-life work as an architect, which participants would hope to experience during the programme, had been identified as:
At the event, students demonstrated by a show of hands whether or not they had experienced these different elements of an architect’s work life during their placement. The most common insights, experienced by around 25 students, were planning and/or building control regulations, and onsite activity. Just three students got experience of winning work and/or procurement during their placement.
25 students experienced insights into planning and/or building control regulations.
Just three students got experience of winning work and procurement.
The RSUA Professional Insights Programme is run by RSUA in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University. It is designed to give Stage 2 undergraduate students a taste for day-to-day life as an architect and an idea of how their studies will apply to their future professional life. This year, 120 students and 60 architects took part.
RSUA Director Ciarán Fox expressed his thanks to everyone who participated and emphasised that the programme would not happen without the commitment of the RSUA members who offer their time and expertise to mentor the students.
