The primary aim of History and Theory Studies (HTS) is to assist in the process of creating graduates who are independent, critical and inventive. In order to do so, it must address many aspects of the architectural culture and discourse that are not directly addressed in design work. Firstly, students need not only to understand, but to take a view on cultural and political questions that involve architecture such as ecology, housing and widespread inequality; issues with which it is imperative that architectural intelligence intervenes. Secondly, there are those questions that stem from within architecture itself: the nature of contemporary practice, the possible career routes for trained architects and the responses of the profession at large to particular social issues and questions of public taste. Both of these dimensions are critical components of the discourse at the AA and its translation of cultural issues into architecture. In the Experimental Programme (BA(Hons)), HTS relies upon a traditional structure of lectures, seminars, and tutorials. In each year, students are required to produce written essays in the first and second terms.