The Education Board of the European Institute for Golf Course Architects has admitted sixteen candidates as student members. They will participate in a two year part-time course, attending residential seminars at five locations in England, Germany, Scotland and Portugal.

The course is a mixture of design studies and workshops, specialist teaching by Institute Members and the industry, and course visits. In between each two-week seminar, students will undertake project work, dissertation, essays and reading.

Howard Swan, Chairman of the Institute's Education Board, said: "We are extremely pleased to have had so much interest in the course from all over the world. The sixteen selected students are of the highest quality and we look forward to their joining the Institute and contributing towards the evolution of our profession." Seven existing student members – Gary Johnston, Ying Kang, Jari Koivusalo, Cees Van Nieuwenhuizen, Brian Noble, Jose Agustin Pizá and Stephen Ridgway – have joined the Institute as Graduates, having successfully completed their Masters programme.

Rainer Preissmann, Chairman of the EIGCA's Membership Committee, said: "We are simply delighted to have more professional architects joining us. The strength of the EIGCA lies in the contributions of its membership and it is reassuring that that is growing steadily.

Our recruits are coming from our student education programmes as well as directly from the practising profession itself." Three new Members and four new Associates have also joined the ranks of the EIGCA. Jeff Howes from Ireland, Volker Püschel from Germany and Jorge Santana da Silva from Portugal became Members. Peter Fjällman from Sweden, Rolf-Stephan Hansen from Germany, Libor Jirasek from Czech Republic and Edwin Roald from Iceland became Associates.

This article first appeared in issue 1 of Golf Course Architecture, published in July 2005.