The 1997 Act was passed in the period after the United Kingdom had become one of the Member States of the European Economic Community, later named the European Union, an organization which, among other things, has required Member States to remove obstacles to the freedom of movement and establishment in respect of professional practice, employment, trade and business within the territories of the Union.
The method of qualifying by passing an examination which the RIBA had recognized as allowing exemption continued in the period when the 1931 Act was in force, and remained available under the later legislation.
[7] These editions contain articles which conveniently indicate how examination, as a method of gaining recognition for the attainment of the specialist knowledge and skill required of a professional practitioner, had grown and had been thought of in the period leading up to the passing of the 1931 Act.
The demand for architectural services, in respect of both traditional and newer materials and techniques, was coming from public bodies, commercial and industrial enterprises, private owners or investors, philanthropists, benefactors and others.
[8] As a result, institutional arrangements for architectural education became increasingly systematic, in respect of examinations for formal qualifications, and making qualifications a condition for granting some other form of distinguishing style or title (such as Fellow, Associate or Licentiate of a professional body), or for the right or expectation to be able to practise as an architect, on one's own account or as a partner or as an assistant in another's office.
The index of the eleventh edition offers users very little more about architectural education than a few words in an article on Examinations generally, which was attributed in part to Paul George Konody, Art Critic of The Observer and the Daily Mail, formerly Editor of The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, author of the Art of Walter Crane; Velázquez, Life and Work; etc., and in part to Arthur Watson, Secretary in the Academic Department of the University of London.
It began with the paragraph: There followed eight sections beginning with History and ending with a critical appraisal headed The Object and Efficiency of Examinations, and their Indirect Effects.
For examinations in Medicine, the article referred the reader to the article on Medical Education, and this section concluded with a single paragraph headed Other Professions, stating that a system of professional examinations carried on by other professional bodies, in some cases with legal sanction, was developed in England during the nineteenth century; and, in a list of subjects described as "the most important" mentioned "architecture (Royal Institute of British Architects )", along with: accountancy, actuarial work, music, pharmacy, plumbing, surveying, veterinary medicine, technical subjects, e.g. cotton-spinning, dyeing, motor manufacturing, commercial subjects, shorthand and engineering (civil, mechanical and electrical).