e have believed that it was convenient to devote this editorial to a matter that has been controversial in the Architecture University and professional world in Spain . An issue that is related mainly to architecture teaching . However, its repercussions have been taken beyond, from debate to debate, leading to all types of reactions: from the most optimistic and controlled, to some others that are catastrophic. The change we are going to mention next has led to some argument in regards to the quality of the architecture education and the independence of his profession. At least that is the way it has been interpreted in many cases.

We are referring to the way the Spanish university education has been adapted to the Declaración de Bolonia (1999), an agreement that suggests the consolidation of the so called espacio europeo de educación superior . The main objective of this Declaration was to increase the university degrees compatibility, which would improve professional mobility, recognition in the European Union, and therefore, the right of establishment and of providing services. Everything looked desirable, at the beginning, due to the fact that the agreement objectives had to be beneficial both for the student mobility and to the working market.

However, its application in Spain resulted in an extreme confusion and controversy, especially from a draft publication of the 26 October, 2007 Real Decree. This lead to different interpretations. Since there was a lack of information, they were exaggerated provoking some great uncertainty.

Even though the reform is oriented to teaching, and therefore, theoretically, it only affects university graduate's competences (that is to say, those capacities that one person has thanks to his/her education), it has been warned many times by architects and architecture students of a possible professional attribute resignations. These may lead to the fact that other degrees (especially some engineer ones) could compete directly with architecture in the working market. This issue, on the other hand, has been a classic problem throughout both professions history.

Needless to say that architecture is a ruled profession, that is to say, in order to work as an architect, it is important to possess the corresponding degree (Architect degree this time). Its regulation is controlled by law . That is why it is necessary to establish clearly which degrees allow people to work in this profession.

This last line seems to be one of the aspects that have caused more rejection when including it in the Architecture Registry (which substitutes the previous degree catalog) as part of the same "branch of knowledge" with all the other engineer degrees, as well as the existence of subjects in common between the different careers within the same branch. According to the people involved in writing the Real Decree, such classification makes sense only for making it simpler when it comes to degree transaction and management. However, many people have shown to be against it, as they remember that architecture is mainly a generalist profession, which integrates different types of knowledge apart from the technical one. This is opposite to an engineer profession, which tends to be more specialized.

Another of the controversial issue during the debates prior to the Real Decree publication has been the reduction of the amount of credits of the career. Architecture, as well as Medicine and some other ruled professions, affect one topic of public interest that has important safety and quality regulations. Therefore, an education reduction would not benefit the society at all. In fact, these careers have a European Direction that sets the minimum content and knowledge that have to be provided. Moreover, a book called Libro Blanco del título de grado en Arquitectura had been published . This latter dealt with its renewal in order to adapt it to the new situation without decreasing its quality. As it was alleged by some groups, the last draft of the Real Decree was not clear enough about this topic specifically: although the European Direction was contemplated in the previous draft, it did not appear in the last one, and it was substituted by some rules to be defined by the government in the future. All in all, it seems that the biggest fears have disappeared after this decree publication and the mentioned regulations. Moreover, the career will continue to be generalist and will still have the corresponding duration. Consequently, Architecture teaching in Spain will be able to maintain its high quality and reach, which is nowadays recognized all over Europe .

Lastly, and as extra reference, we should emphasize on the fact that one of the groups that have fought the most for the transparency has been the architecture student's one, since they have been directly affected in their teaching and professional future. The Student's Delegations of the different universities have organized themselves efficiently and have promoted the debate and circulation , by criticizing the lack of information about the subject matter. A clear example of this is last 5 October's debate held at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid , which is available in video (click here to watch it) and it constitutes an excellent summary of the situation, including the causes and arguments involved.

Looking back, the advantage of all this commotion is that the issue was made public. The involved agents were allowed to explain their points and the student or professional was made conscious about the importance of change. In fact, due to this problem, much more people (at least temporarily) are interested in debates about university education, its competences, and even the professional attributes and the architect role in society.

The current editorial cannot nor it pretends to crumble all the aspects and arguments that are involved in this sigue, but to give a general view and to make it easier to access the documentation, which has some links at the end of the text. We encourage the reader to confront the different opinions and arguments with his/her personal interpretation after reading.

The Staff of TodoArquitectura.com