CIH is downgrading our profession
I am dismayed that it is proposed, in the framework proposals for reform, to be discussed at its AGM that the Chartered Institute of Housing is to look to remove its fellowship grade. I feel the prospect of fellowship maintains an interest for corporate members to continue working toward this higher recognition. Without this, corporate members will simply sit on this grade for good and would potentially be less active in the organisation and less interested in their own professional ...
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Of more serious concern, within the document, is the statement: ‘Many would-be members feel excluded from CIH because they do not have a recognised academic qualification. While it is important to recognise the achievements of people who have studied for a CIH accredited housing course, it is also concluded that we should find a better way to recognise the achievements of people who are good housing professionals but who, for a variety of reasons, are unwilling or unable to complete an academic route to membership.’
We are in danger of downgrading the profession if we, unbelievably, want to give equal recognition to those who have been ‘unwilling to complete an academic route to membership’ and those who have been so willing.
It is also an insult to the many thousands of us who completed the qualification while juggling everything else in our lives. If you turn this on its head, it does not seem important that ‘the achievements of those who have studied…’ is recognised - quite the opposite.
I have never felt that the CIH was elitist, quite the contrary. And while I would have no problem with anyone being able to access the CIH, the approach of allowing anyone to be a member is a retrograde step for the profession and for the organisation (and membership) professional standing.
I am staggered if this was the consensus of fellow members being reflected.
Gary Hall, project manager, housing services, Wrexham Council