Since 2016, Prof Arthur Barker, has been serving on the Pretoria Institute for Architecture's (PIA) main committee where he represents the interests of the department of architecture at University of Pretoria and architectural education in general.

This year, he will chair the education portfolio which will involve the setting up of specialisation courses for architects, accreditation of CPD activities, possible RPL courses for accreditation, improved interaction and communication between PIA and the schools of architecture, selecting student representatives for the committee to improve relations with students and young architects, organization of student bursaries and funding plans and support for the Student and Practitioner Expo:  DesignBuild 2017.

Every second year, the PIA awards good architecture submitted from its local membership. During the course of 2017, Prof Barker will be responsible for convening the awards committee and organisation of the associated processes which include assessment of and limited selection from paper submissions, subsequent in-situ visits to those projects and the decisions about final awards.