Under the updated system, designed to align with the ARB’s new education and training framework, those with partial UK qualifications (such as Part 2 and 3, though not Part 1) will no longer have to sit a formal exam. The regulator says the move would create a more ‘proportionate’ process.

The reforms come on the back of a consultation run from October 2024 to January 2025 as part of the ARB’s plans to streamline the existing ‘outdated and complex’ process for overseas architects.

Respondents overwhelmingly backed the creation of a single point of entry to the UK register, as well as the shift to a competence-based assessment.

One in four pointed to cost as the largest barrier to registration for overseas architects and expressed views that exams should be kept affordable.

As a result, the ARB will introduce competence-based assessments in a ‘modernised format’, with ‘simplified eligibility criteria’ and a ‘single point of entry to the register’.

The regulator will also begin outsourcing exams. It will initially appoint only a single provider, having reported a ‘mixed response’ to the proposal. Commitment to this policy will be ‘considered depending on the success of the contract model’.

ARB chair Alan Kershaw said: ‘Candidates who qualified outside the UK seeking registration here have previously told us that the current assessment methods are unnecessarily convoluted, time-consuming and confusing.

‘We have been determined to improve the system, and our proposals for change have been met with high levels of support. Some useful feedback from people responding to the consultation has helped us further refine the new approach.

‘The changes we will implement will create more modern and effective assessment methodologies to ensure that competent architects, qualified outside the UK, will have fairer access to the UK Register.’

The ARB plans to introduce the updated Prescribed Exam and UK Adaptation Assessment in 2027, while the new route for professionals with partial qualifications could possibly launch by the end of 2026.

It stated that those eligible under the current routes should continue applying as normal, and it will make further announcements as implementation of the new process progresses.