Recognised Practitioner

Professionals with a suitable balance of education and experience can apply to become a Recognised Practitioner in Urban Design. The distinction provides a wide range of professionals with a valued affiliation (in many cases an additional one), proclaiming their commitment to - and experience of - urban design.

Being a Recognised Practitioner can give those working in urban design a sense of identity; greater influence on professional practice and public policy; and a stronger sense of common purpose. Recognised Practitioners are professionals with a wide range of skills and experience of designing in an urban context. Many of the new generation of professionals have more than one professional affiliation; moreover they expect - and are required - to develop new skills and areas of expertise throughout their career.
 
It is expected that Recognised Practitioners will come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds including:
  • Urban Design
  • Highway and Civil Engineering
  • Building Conservation
  • Development Control
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Lighting
  • Architecture
  • Regeneration and Development
  • Transport Planning
  • and other professions
The core of the Recognised Practitioner assessment is the Capacitycheck system, which enables people from a wide range of different backgrounds and roles to be considered, including practitioners involved in policy formulation, research or academia.
 
The Application Process
 
In order to become a Recognised Practitioner, you must complete the application form which can be found within this document .
 
The completed application form should be send to the Urban Design Group office in London. The guidence notes included with the form should help you when filling in the form but if you have any other questions, please feel free to email admin@udg.org.uk

Recognised Practitioner membership costs £80.00 per year (or £40.00 additional fee if you are already a member). You may send a cheque with your application but it is not advisable to make any pre-payment before your application has been officially approved.

Upon receipt of the application form, the assessment procedure is as follows:
  • Confirmation of receipt of application by UDG office. Any obvious problems with the application will be flagged up at this stage (inappropriate sponsors, insufficient experience etc.)
  • Detailed assessment of information submitted within the application by the UDG's Recognised Practitioner assessment panel, made up of a small group from the Executive Committee. The panel will either make a recommendation that the individual should be elected as a Recognised Practitioner, request further information if there is any uncertainty or ambiguity or reject the application.
  • The panel's recommedations are then presented to the full UDG Executive Committee at its next meeting, where those present have the opportunity to query the panel's recommendations and on this basis approve or reject the application.
  • The full process should take no longer than two months from receipt of the application to a final decision (unless there are any difficult issues to address).  The precise length of time largely depends upon when the applications are received in relation to the next full Executive Committee meeting. As a rough guide, these meetings occur every other month - January, March, May, July, September and November - and usually within the first week of that month; therefore applications received by the middle of the preceding month will generally be considered within that 'batch'.
IMPORTANT:
 
The award of Recognised Practitioner in Urban Design is made by the Executive Committee of the Urban Design Group, on the basis of information submitted in the application form and declarations made by the candidate, in addition to the recommendation of two independent sponsors.
 
At the time the award is made, each candidate is able to demonstrate, by their declared experience and qualifications (where appropriate), that they had striven to contribute to the practice of urban design and should, in the opinion of the Executive Committee, be capable of making a valued contribution to urban design in future years.