Published in 'Architectural Research Quarterly,'  12 , pp 209-212

Reflections on the Oxford Conference 2008

As its title suggests, ‘The Oxford Conference 2008: 50 Years on – Resetting the Agenda for Architectural Education’ aimed to influence architectural education. Five decades ago, in 1958, fifty delegates representing British members of the profession, industry and teaching institutions attended the first and only other Oxford Conference on Architectural Education organised by the RIBA. Several visitors from abroad and from Commonwealth countries also attended. The 1958 conference articulated the demand to shift architectural education from polytechnics or art schools to universities, and fifty years later the notion that we live in a ‘climate of change’ permeated Oxford Conference 2008 (Oxford 2008). With delegates from forty-two countries representing every continent there was a manifest change in the composition of the delegates, and on the face of it this would suggest that a more diverse attendance made a difference in the spectrum of issues coming to the forefront: but did it?