Issues in selecting architecture as a college major : increasing the number of practitioners through expanded participation by females and minorities /
The architectural profession has experienced major changes in its product delivery methods through technological innovations such as Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) and visual graphics. Concurrently it faces a looming crisis involving its most valuable element: personnel. To meet the dem...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2002.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764709001&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | The architectural profession has experienced major changes in its product delivery methods through technological innovations such as Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) and visual graphics. Concurrently it faces a looming crisis involving its most valuable element: personnel. To meet the demands of a growing state population during the next five years, employment projections indicate a need to educate, train and license a 20% increase above the 10,021 current practitioners in order to perform regulated design activities. While other professional occupations are experiencing increases in their ranks, the architectural profession in Texas witnessed a steady decline in the number of new licenses issued during the recently completed decade. The profession must also address its workforce composition, which has not been substantially altered during this time period to reflect the changing demographics of the society that it serves. Given these shifts in the architectural paradigm, the profession must clearly improve its public awareness to increase the pool of student applicants available to the state's college architectural programs. These potential increases in human capital will afford the profession the opportunity to successfully recruit the best and brightest candidates in a very competitive environment. In this research, incoming freshman and transfer students at the state's accredited architecture programs were surveyed using a written questionnaire to learn the influences causing them to select this college major. The objective was to gain improved insight into recruitment, along with identifying issues critical to increase future retention and registration. The research also sought means that these educational programs could combine resources and work together for their collective and individual betterment. Most importantly, the research specifically sought to identify possible measures to increase outreach and recruitment among females and minorities so that the profession can fill the rising number of new positions and more closely resemble the new societal demographics. The research findings indicate that the reasons any ethnic group or either gender would be inclined to enter the architecture profession are more similar than different. We must use these results to successfully recruit the next generation of practitioners that will shape our physical environment. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Architecture". |
| Physical Description: | 2 volumes : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 340-370). |