Problem Statement: The gap between university education and labor market needs, on the one hand, and rapid changes in the world of professions, on the other, have made training architecture graduates suited to the labor market a challenge. Aiming to reduce this gap, the present study extracted the main categories from global competency standards and comparatively analyzed them with Iran’s architectural education system to provide an analytical basis for revising educational curricula.

Research Objectives: This study aimed to identify content priorities in global professional standards and analyze their gaps with architectural education in Iran. The main question is: What are the content priorities in international competency models for architects, and what gaps exist between these models and architectural education in Iran?

Research Method: The present study employs qualitative content analysis with a comparative approach. To this end, the professional competency documents of five countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Bhutan) were selected and analyzed using MAXQDA software. The analytical process was carried out in three stages—open coding, axial coding, and selective coding—leading to the extraction of 11 axial categories and identification of a “global common core” of competencies for the contemporary architect.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that the main gap in architectural education in Iran lies not in technical knowledge or design, but rather in managerial, interactive, and professional ethics domains. They show that, in global models, managerial, legal, and skill-based competencies (such as project management and communication skills) account for more than 40 percent of the total weight. In contrast, comparison with Iran’s approved curriculum (1400/2021) reveals a structural imbalance: about 70 of 140 credits are allocated to design, while managerial and regulatory domains account for only about 2.8 percent.