A recurring question answered with a degree of optimism

What is architectural research? That was the title of a University of Cambridge Department of Architecture symposium held at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London in September 2005. The idea of the symposium emerged during a battle to save Cambridge's Department of Architecture from closure in 2004. The University authorities had recommended closure because the Department's research rating in the UK's Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) of 2001 had dropped from 5 to 4 with a corresponding fall in research funding from the government. For a research-based university like Cambridge (where only three departments out of over 50 in the whole University scored below 5) research funding subsidises teaching so, for the University authorities, closure would have saved money and reduced its financial deficit. An outcry from within and outside the University saved the Cambridge Department, but important questions remain.