Review of architectural education processes applied by Turkey and member countries of the European Unions

Abstract

The architectural profession incorporates the contexts of many disciplines by enabling many professions to work together. Therefore, candidates who will perform the architectural profession need to improve themselves in working along with these disciplines. Professional practice studies ensure that the theoretical lessons learned are combined with practice. They are internship practices that appear in the architectural education curriculum and professional practice experiences attended by candidates who have completed their academic education. In this study, it is aimed to comprehend the place and importance of professional practice studies in the architectural education process. Besides the 27 member countries of the European Union Turkey was also investigated, where the article has been prepared. The method of the study is the descriptive comparison method based on literature review. According to the obtained data, although architectural education of the countries that were analyzed have not shown great diversities, it is seen that architectural education in many countries have a period five-years, while this process in Turkey is four-years. Unlike member countries of the European Union, the professional practice studies in Turkey include limited internship practices. In other countries, however, has been observed that architect candidates have developed their skills by taking part in their professional life before having authorization of practice, whereby professional practice experiences. As a result, this study has revealed that the requirement of the process of architectural education being implemented in Turkey to be equivalent to those in the member countries of the European Union needs the inclusion of internship programs.