During my summer holiday, I managed to help get a new article published with my co-author, Dr. Rahman Tafahomi, from the University of Rwanda.

The article, “Comparing the meaning of ‘thesis’ and ‘final year project’ in architecture and engineering education” was published in the European Journal of Engineering Education (EJEE) at the beginning of August.

It was no easy feat, as the concepts in this paper are both theoretical and applied.

Rahman and I worked closely together for a year and a half, refining a manuscript he had drafted. Together, we crafted sections to link the topic of architecture education to the journal’s main readership, comprised of engineering education researchers. We had to translate many ideas to make them readily understandable to teachers of engineering and architecture alike.

We also perfected every sentence of the manuscript, seeking to communicate ideas as effectively as possible to EJEE’s broad audience.

I’m extremely proud of this work, and realized only after publishing it that we’d hit a sweet spot, as described by a scholar Deborah Gill from the UK, by helping shed light on these two terms and the types of education they imply.

I tend to agree with Deborah’s assessment that many people have an interest in this question and that conversations around this topic arise frequently on university campuses everywhere, because the article has been available on the publisher’s website only since August 10th, 2023, and in just six weeks it’s been downloaded 435 times. That only shows part of the picture, though, because it’s also been downloaded from ResearchGate 47 times.

Rahman developed a very valuable series of diagrams depicting:

• Figure 1. Final year project studio relationships in architecture.
• Figure 2. Thesis process in undergraduate architecture.
• Figure 3. The process of science research.
• Figure 4. The process of the engineering research.
• Figure 5. Bauhaus and Beaux Art (and Polytechnique) educational approaches.
• Figure 6. Integrated approach to mitigate the problem.

You can download the paper to see the diagrams, from https://www-tandfonline-com.tudublin.idm.oclc.org/doi/epdf/10.1080/03043797.2023.2244441?needAccess=truehttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03043797.2023.2244441

I hope that many people read it, use the content in their teaching practice, and cite the article in their own future publications.

Rahman Tafahomi holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Urban Design from the University of Technology Malaysia. He works at the University of Rwanda in the Department of Architecture as an associate professor. Over the summer, he earned promotion from senior lecturer to associate professor — well deserved! Rahman’s research interests include architecture, landscape design, urban design, heritage, architecture education, teaching and learning in higher education, and behavioral patterns.