Up to the Bologna

Вектор архитектурного образования рациональный прагматизм или концептуальные фантазии. - Новиков Н.М. и др.

Up to the Bologna declaration everybody thought of how much a teacher can teach, we called it "semester teaching hours" per week. In this way we had the teacher in our mind, not taking care about the students.

Today it is just the opposite. We think about how much a student can learn, we call it "workload". The commission of study and learning has defined workload as the "time an average student needs to reach a defined learning outcome". That includes not only the time during module courses at university, but also the time a student needs to prepare and reinforce his knowledge, as well as to prepare and execute the written homework and examinations.

The workload is counted in ECTS credit points. We count one credit point is related to a 30 hour workload an average student can learn.

One module is related to 5 credit points. That means, one module takes 150 hour (5 credits x 30 hours) workload.

The students are supposed to make 30 credit points per semester or 60 credit points per year. That means 900 hours/Semester or 1800 hours/ year workload for a student.

Never the less, it says how much time an average student needs to study on a job! The amount of knowledge a lecturer is asking for has to be related to the workload.

The department of architecture at the University of Applied Sciences, TFH Berlin has changed the education system from a Diploma system course to the Bachelor (6 semesters) and Master (4 semesters) system. Each are fully qualified academic degrees.

Bachelor study

Bachelor studies lead to the professional qualified academic degree: Bachelor of Arts (BA)

The aim of the Bachelor study is a basic competence in all disciplines of architecture (like professional, methodical and social competence). In this way the graduates are able to do average standard architectural planning for buildings in a semi independent way.

Architecture develops in the interdisciplinary of the human-, social- and natural sciences, technology and art. That is why the study of architecture is a wide spread and multi tasking discipline. The complexity of the learning outcome leads to an architect as the general coordinator of a building project. The graduate is able to perform the average standard architectural planning for buildings, which means to combine art, technology and economy to create appropriate solutions.

The bachelor studies in architecture are aimed at practical work and basic knowledge.The postgraduate is able to do the applied office work in the focus of realizing average standard common buildings. A graduate is able to perform standard office work related to an average standard building project

Final thesis

The final thesis is performed in the last semester and is part of the Bachelor module with 15 credits. The thesis should take a maximum time of three months. The beginning and the end of the thesis is set by the commission of examination of the department of architecture.