// unsure if this organization is similar to the
accreditation system in the .us and also, the issue
is interesting as there should be more rigorous R&D
in architecture, equating it with 'arch design' is
potentially limiting/constraining ideas/explorations. //
Architects condemn plan to close Cambridge school // archnewsnow
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1361750,00.html
'In their letter the architects suggest that the reviews are outmoded: "The difficulties from which the department has suffered in recent years are, in our view, attributable wholly to the distortions imposed on British architectural schools by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)."
'The reviews are established by the higher education funding council for England. They rate the standards of research in all university departments on a scale of 1 and 5. Most Cambridge departments were rated 5, but architecture was rated at 4.