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KUALA LUMPUR (March 14): The Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) president Mohd Zulhemlee urged the authorities to raise the passing rate of professional architecture courses to solve the shortage of architects.
He spoke to reporters after the official launch of the PAM-Tan Sri Ar Chan Sau Lai (PAM TSCSL) Architecture Award 2016 and its website today.
"The annual average passing rate (of the professional architectural course) is between 15% and 20%. We wish it could be raised to 60% and above to solve the architect shortage problem," he said.
He said there are 500 architects who graduate locally and abroad and join the field every year; right now, there are about 1,800 qualified architects in Malaysia.
"We need about 4,000 architects by 2020, but we have fewer than 2,000 now. The main reason is the low passing rate," he reckoned.
Zulhemlee and Tan Sri Chan Sau Lai officiated the launch of the PAM TSCSL Architecture Award 2016.
The award aims to demonstrate PAM and the benefactor’s commitments to architecture design excellence by recognising outstanding achievements by the students of architecture in design and to introduce these final year students to the profession and the industry.
The award is offering a RM50,000 grant to the winners, and there will be two stages of judging of submissions.
The jury panel will shortlist up to eight finalists at stage one before proceeding to stage two of the awards, where the panel will interview the finalists in person or via video conferencing in August this year.
Finalists are also required to present their design project during this interview.
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