17 June 2022 · By Maryam Al-Irhayim

After the revelations of bullying and discrimination at The Bartlett, we need to make sure all universities are doing enough to protect students, writes recent Part 2 student Mariam Al-Irhayim

The pretty architecture pictures that students post on Instagram don’t reflect the often-ugly reality of an education in architecture. The truth is that it is very demanding, and students now face different types of pressures from increasing debt, the cost of living crisis, extortionate rents and navigating post-pandemic learning.

Architecture schools are, frankly, not good enough: we need to raise standards. No student seeking an education should be treated without respect. Schools need to champion the student experience and the path to becoming a chartered architect, while ensuring safe ethical working conditions. And it’s not just universities: we need to ensure students are safeguarded against unfair practices in the whole process of becoming an architect, by outlawing underpaid overtime and work paid below the living wage.

It would be convenient to assume that architectural teaching is questionable only at The Bartlett. However, during my role as the RIBA vice-president for students and associates, students spoke to me about their experiences and I’m sorry to burst that bubble. It’s not just The Bartlett, there are others. I can’t say the stories I heard are as bad as those some Bartlett students have told, yet they are still concerning. A systematic toxic culture prevails.

During the Covid-19 pandemic we saw an increase in applications for assistance from the RIBA Hardship Fund. The pandemic exacerbated the disproportional inequality that students face, especially those from lower financial backgrounds balancing work and studying, or those with mental health conditions or learning difficulties.

Imagine having to choose between model-making equipment or food. That’s not the situation of just one student somewhere; it is many young people’s untold story. Students I spoke to have recounted their struggles with mental health, some informing me that colleagues on their course attempted or in some cases succeeded at taking their own lives.

Digital poverty has also been exacerbated in architecture. There is an increasing need to have high-spec laptops to complete courses, and this is not always communicated clearly to students. Software licensing costs place yet another extra financial burden on students.

What can be done? Well, everyone has a role to play.

Students must have the courage to speak out and universities need to listen. Staff need to be more aware of the impact that their words and actions have. They should also be trained in recognising personal bias; learn how to recognise a conflict of interest; and remember that projects belong to students, not them. Fostering a culture that is safe and transparent and more bottom-up is difficult but there are already some universities with proper structures for pastoral care and inclusion structures.

Part of the problem is studio culture, which can be very inward-facing. I have heard everything from unhealthy group projects, featuring physical and emotional abuse, to students left in tears after a crit. The current system it is still very difficult to blow the whistle on, as there are internal pressures and power dynamics that make it difficult for students to report abuses. Students sometimes fear their teacher will lower their grades or see them as causing trouble – which is why it doesn’t surprise me that what has been going on at The Bartlett went unreported for so long.

It is very difficult as a student to tell between staff opinion and academic guidance, as these sometimes overlap. Compare architecture with a subject like mathematics, where there is one right answer, and it becomes very tricky to draw the line.

On the other side of the spectrum, I should note, there are teachers who encourage and support students. I was fortunate to have such teachers and know that a supportive studio where ideas are shared and healthy competition can go a long way.

Currently there are plans at the RIBA to tighten the validation criteria and wellbeing is part of the conversation. The right questions will need to be asked in validation interviews: what is studio culture really like at your school? How are students supported?

The Bartlett is the tip the iceberg: there is a much wider problem with systemic cultural problems in architectural education. We can’t just accept the way things are and be complacent; we must try to improve and demand more. We owe it to the students who have already suffered to learn from what happened at The Bartlett and not allow it to be repeated, anywhere, ever again.

Maryam Al-Irhayim has recently graduated and has been vice-president for students and associates at RIBA Council since 2019

Tags Architectural education Architecture schools Bartlett School of Architecture Students UCL

Sorry but the claim that a toxic culture is widespread in architecture schools cannot go unchallenged. That is not my experience teaching in a number of schools, here in the UK but also in the US and China. In fact quite the opposite is true. I have no idea what went on at the Bartlett but to claim that Bartlett is the tip of the iceberg or that all universities are not doing enough to protect students is false and the claim disturbing. In my experience fellow teachers go out of their way to support their students.

As for the Bartlett, Penny Lewis made a very valid point in a previous news piece: why have the lectures who have been suspended and called out not been given the opportunity to reply?

I agree with Alan – the hysteria around a so-called ‘toxic, culture is a sure way to undermine good staff student relationship not to mention good teaching.

I’m sorry but… what opportunity? What do you think an independent report involves? Some coffee breaks with students and a wander around studios?

Hysteria is the way cliques of tutors and professors at our institutions have lashed out against students and ex-students, for daring to bring forth something that the Bartlett has been infamous for DECADES, along with many other “top-tier” schools.

If you think the opposite is true, then one of two things have happened – you turned a blind eye to how your students have felt, their behaviour, how external critics and tutors have treated them, OR you were part of the abusive lot that rip up someone’s outrageously expensive printing, break a model apart to explain your own esoteric points, or insult someone’s intellect for not having produced what you consider to be good work. This not to even mention outright discrimination, which goes beyond architectural education, or the famous “using student projects as free project research interns” trick.

Even from an institution that prizes its focus on student’s wellbeing and mental health, I’ve seen crying students, an occasion where a tutor insinuated the student should go back to where they came from, an external Muslim researcher treated like she was a security risk (!), etc. All paling in comparison with stories from colleagues in London. Unless institutions are proactively preventing similar situations from occurring again, then they’re complicit, and so are you.

They had an opportunity to reply, and in fact did, otherwise they’d be suing UCL – in fact, they’ve had decades and decades to do so, as have many hundred vultures more.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts as well as what other students have reported to you Maryam

Cliques of tutors? Turning a blind eye? OR being part of an abusive lot? I would respectfully suggest Jose Figueira that yours is the hysterical reaction. Simply put, if you write that a toxic culture is widespread; the ugly reality of architecture education or of a systemic cultural problems in schools of architecture then you have to substantiate that, that would also be the mature thing to do………… otherwise it should be open to challenge (for it is not my experience having taught at all levels in many schools) but to do so makes me and perhaps also Penny complicit. Not do do so is ” a sure way to undermine good staff student relationship not to mention good teaching”

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