The ARB Prescribed Examination is still running — but the Part 1 exam ends this October, and the application window has already closed

The ARB Prescribed Examination has not been abolished, and it has not been replaced. As of the date below, ARB’s own guidance still opens with the word “Currently” and still describes the exam as the thing you need to pass. What has actually happened is narrower and more urgent than the version circulating on forums: the Part 1 Prescribed Examination is ending after October 2026, the application deadline for the current exam was 31 August 2026, and the redesigned exam is only a consultation proposal — the consultation does not close until 16 September 2026.

If you have been told that “Part 1, 2 and 3 have been scrapped and replaced by a new 2027 system”, that is wrong in a way that could cost you a year.

What ARB’s live guidance still says

ARB’s page for people with overseas or non-recognised UK qualifications states:

“Currently if you hold overseas qualifications obtained outside the EU or hold non-recognised UK qualifications, you will need to pass ARB’s Examination for Equivalence to Prescribed Qualifications (also known as the ‘Prescribed Examination’) to progress towards registering as an architect in the UK.”

The same page also states that once you have satisfied Part 1 and Part 2 requirements, “either by obtaining qualifications or by passing the Prescribed Examination”, you “will then need to obtain a UK Part 3 qualification from a UK school of architecture.”

That second sentence is the one people skip. The Prescribed Examination has never been a route that avoids UK study altogether. It substitutes for the academic Parts. The UK practice-level qualification is still a separate purchase.

What is actually being discontinued

One part, not the whole exam. ARB’s guidance says that under its reforms, “individuals with ARB-accredited Part 2 and Part 3 qualifications (or Part 2 via Prescribed Exam) will no longer require Part 1 to apply for registration, and the Part 1 Prescribed Examination will be discontinued following final sittings in 2026.”

Its FAQ puts a date on it:

“From October 2026, ARB will no longer offer a Part 1 Prescribed Examination. However, the new Prescribed Examination which will replace the Part 2 Prescribed Examination will continue to be delivered by ARB.”

So the exam survives. The Part 1 level of it does not. The reason is not that ARB decided Part 1 knowledge stopped mattering — it is that ARB is introducing a registration route for people who hold an accredited Part 2 and Part 3 without an accredited Part 1, which makes a Part 1 equivalence exam redundant for that group.

The dates that matter, and the one that has already passed

ARB’s Exam Dates page states:

“The deadline to apply to sit either the Part 1 or Part 2 Prescribed Examination under the current registration route will be 31 August 2026, with the final examinations taking place in October 2026.”

The final sittings listed on that page are 19–23 October 2026. The August (24–28) and September (21–25) 2026 blocks are also listed.

That deadline was three days before the date at the top of this page. If you were planning to apply for either part of the current Prescribed Examination, that window is, on ARB’s own published statement, shut.

Where ARB’s own pages disagree — read this before you assume

We found two live ARB pages that do not say the same thing, and we are not going to smooth it over.

The Exam Dates page gives a hard 31 August 2026 application deadline for either part. But the Changes to Routes to Registration page, fetched the same day, says of the Part 2 exam:

“Applicants who do not hold an ARB-accredited Part 1 qualification may still apply for the ARB’s Part 2 Prescribed Examination during 2026.”

and, in its FAQ, “Yes, but we have limited spaces left on our Examinations schedule until October 2026.”

Those two statements are not compatible on 3 September 2026. One page says applications closed on 31 August; another says you may still apply during 2026 subject to space. We cannot resolve this from the published pages, and we are not going to guess which is operative. If you are affected, this is a question to put to ARB’s exams team in writing before you rely on either page — and to keep the reply.

What is only a proposal

This is the part the forums have collapsed. ARB published a consultation on 5 August 2026 titled “ARB consults on proposals for modernised Prescribed Examination”. Its own consultation page states the position plainly:

“Subject to the outcome of consultation and Board approval, ARB expects to introduce the revised Prescribed Examination in spring 2027.”

and

“We welcome feedback on the proposed Registration Rules, Eligibility Guidance and Prescribed Examination Policy Scheme until 16 September 2026.”

The news release repeats it: “The consultation will close on 16 September 2026.” Alan Kershaw, ARB’s Chair, is quoted saying the proposals “are designed to create a more modern, transparent and outcomes-focused assessment”.

So: proposals, open for comment, closing 16 September 2026, with a decision to follow. ARB says that after the consultation it “will consider the feedback received before deciding whether to introduce the revised Prescribed Examination.”

We are not going to tell you what the new exam will contain or that it will definitely launch on time. The consultation has not closed, the Board has not decided, and anyone publishing the new rules as settled fact today is inventing them. What ARB has published about its own expectation — and only that — is: applications online from mid-January 2027, first exams in spring 2027.

What ARB says your options are right now

Taken from ARB’s transition guidance, in its words:

• If you had applied for the Part 1 exam, ARB lists three options: proceed with the application, withdraw and “receive a refund of 75% for your Part 1 Prescribed Exam”, or apply for the Part 2 exam instead.
• For the Part 2 exam, ARB states you “will not need to have an ARB-accredited Part 1 qualification or have passed the Part 1 Prescribed Exam to be eligible”.
• On refunds generally: “if we haven’t processed anything” you get a refund; “If we have done the checks and started scheduling, we’ll retain a 25% admin fee. If you have taken, and failed, an exam/assessment, no refund is possible.”

The current fee, from ARB’s fee page, is £1,950 per part, with £300 for a referral to the lead examiner.

What this means if you are deciding what to do

1. Do not treat the new regime as available. It does not exist yet. ARB’s stated expectation is spring 2027, contingent on a consultation that is still open.
2. Do not treat the old regime as gone either. The Part 2 Prescribed Examination is not being abolished; ARB says the new exam replaces it.
3. Check the application-window question with ARB directly, in writing. Two of its pages conflict, and the conflict is about whether you can apply at all this year.
4. Budget for a Part 3 regardless. Every version of this route, current and proposed, still requires a UK practice-level qualification. Passing the exam does not register you.
5. If you have a view on the proposals, the consultation is open until 16 September 2026. Applicants are explicitly among the groups ARB says it wants to hear from.

We do not assess qualifications, and we cannot tell you whether ARB will accept yours. Eligibility and outcome are ARB’s decisions alone, made under its own procedures. What we can tell you is which of the things you have read are published rules, which are proposals, and which are two ARB pages disagreeing with each other.