The IHBC is included in the list of accrediting bodies managed by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), a mark of the close ties between the IHBC’s conservation standards and its own listing of recognised conservation courses
The HESA listing records the relationships between Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs) and programmes of study, and confirms the structured ties between IHBC membership procedures and the Institute’s listing of quality-assured conservation courses, the IHBC’s ‘Recognised Courses’.
IHBC Education Secretary David McDonald said: ‘I’m delighted that the IHBC’s educational standards in built and historic environment conservation sit here alongside such established qualifications and training processes as those of the RIBA and ARB, for architects, and the RTPI, for planners. This simple fact demonstrates just how far the IHBC has progressed in recent years, bringing further credibility to the infrastructure and guidance we offer to the conservation professionals of the future.’
‘Though the IHBC still relies almost exclusively on our dedicated membership and volunteers, and has had to work with minimal, if any, wider support from government interests, this Higher Education listing sets our procedures firmly within the mainstream of professional education.’
IHBC Membership Secretary Paul Butler said: ‘This listing represents a critical step in the wider recognition of the high standards within the IHBC’s procedures for membership assessment. It also registers our ever-increasing authority across the sector, linking external training programmes to our own internal and independent assessment of pan-disciplinary conservation skills.’
‘It is now well known that our membership criteria are based on international project management models from the World Bank as well as on the international conservation standards provided by ICOMOS. With this listing, we could not be in a stronger position to provide crucial quality assurance both for the specialist built and historic environment conservation professional and for the training routes that they follow.’
IHBC Director Sean O’Reilly said: ‘It is particularly satisfying that our public web presence on the HESA site links directly to our listing of IHBC recognised conservation courses. These courses underpin the training routes for so many of our members, current and future. So this added profile for courses as well as for ourselves represents just the kind of low-cost outcome that the IHBC uniquely delivers through its pro-active approach to partnership working.’
‘Furthermore, the inclusion of the IHBC’s list of recognised courses in the IHBC’s Yearbook, which will take place for the first time in 2013, means that we continue to offer sector leadership in highlighting training opportunities to early career practitioners, all at no cost to the courses concerned.’
‘As well as raising the profile of the courses, we are also working hard at the other end of the user spectrum, as we develop practical tools for students and trainees. Our ‘Webstarter’ resource is the most recent of these, and guides non-specialists and early career practitioners through the more than 25,000 pages on our website.’
‘The Webstarter was launched only in the last few months and it’s already a very popular starting point for non-specialists and comes highly recommended. This new HESA listing means that those interested in conservation can now have even more confidence in starting their learning under the IHBC’s leadership’.
HESA
HESA was set up by agreement between the relevant government departments, the higher education funding councils and the universities and colleges in 1993, following the White Paper ‘Higher Education: a new framework’, which called for more coherence in HE statistics, and the 1992 Higher and Further Education Acts, which established an integrated higher education system throughout the United Kingdom.
See the listing at: LINK
For the IHBC’s Webstarter see: LINK
For the mobile friendly Webstarter see: LINK
For the IHBC’s recognised courses see: LINK
For the IHBC’s Yearbook see: LINK
For HESA see: http://www.hesa.ac.uk/
