The path to licensure is a long one for architects, requiring extensive education, experience and examination taking an average of seven years for candidates to complete.
NCARB, or the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, recently released its “NCARB by the Numbers” report, which offers an inside look into the behavior of aspiring architects on the path to licensure, and into data behind the architecture profession as a whole. In conjunction with the release of its report, NCARB has also been busy making key adjustments to many of the processes in licensure that it oversees for the profession.
But first, a bit about NCARB for those unfamiliar with the organization. NCARB’s mission is to protect the public health, safety and welfare by leading the regulation of the practice of architecture through the development and application of standards for licensure and credentialing of architects. Its primary function is to design tools and model procedures for jurisdictions to apply to their regulation of the path to licensure, ranging from internship guidelines to licensing examination to certification for reciprocal licensing.
NCARB members are the architectural registration boards of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories (Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). NCARB maintains records for its 54 jurisdictional boards, providing services to architects and interns as key stakeholders.
The “NCARB by the Numbers” report includes an excellent comprehensive view of what the architecture profession looks like right now. And the good news is that things are looking pretty sunny. The latest data reveals a number of positive trends that indicate the architect profession is both healthy and growing.
In a nutshell, the number of aspiring architects pursuing the profession is growing; the number of licensed architects is also growing, and in fact reached a record high this year; and women, as well as racial and ethnic minorities, are making up an increasingly larger piece of the aspiring-architects pie.
“The economy is improving, so architecture isn’t as unattractive a profession as it was a few years ago,” said Michael Armstrong, CEO of NCARB. “Studio and firm cultures are also becoming more hospitable to emerging professionals. And it also has to do with the fact that we’re in an era right now where people are more interested in design in general.”
A few highlights:
>Nearly 10,000 new candidates started the path to licensure in 2014, up 4% from 2013.
>3,543 licensure candidates completed the IDP (Intern Development Program) last year, up 85% from the previous year.
>3,719 candidates completed the ARE (Architect Registration Examination) in 2014, up 17%.
>107,581 licensed architects were reported by U.S. licensing boards – another record high and the third consecutive year of increased growth in the profession; a 3% increase since 2011.
>The average age of an architect upon initial licensure fell to 33.3 in 2014, shaving off 2.7 years since 2008.
>Racial and ethnic minorities made up 41% of the aspiring architect talent pool in 2014, compared to 22% in 2007.
>Women made up 38% of aspiring architects who completed the IDP in 2014, compared to 25% in 2000.
>Women also accounted for 35% of candidates who completed the ARE last year, a percentage that has nearly doubled since 2000.
The reporting numbers on women in the architect profession are encouraging; women enrollment numbers are on the rise, and the “NCARB by the Numbers” report also showed that women are taking less time than men to complete the program. If following a logical path, this trend will translate into more licensed female architects. But Mr. Armstrong also noted that a glass ceiling still exists. Women in the principal position and other leadership roles are still lagging in the field. One initiative attempting to address this issue is AIA San Francisco’s “Equity by Design” group movement. First named the “Missing 32% Project,” Equity by Design is a group that aims to explore why women architects do not capture more leadership positions at their firms. Check out the movement’s website at www.themissing32percent.com.
An Easier Path to Licensure
Many of the changes NCARB is making to its policies are part of a sweeping effort to ease the rules on aspiring architects of all types in order to make professional licensure more attainable. The organization is streamlining each of the three steps to licensure – education, experience and examination.
“These three steps used to happen sequentially, one after another,” noted Mr. Armstrong. “Now those steps are running concurrently. The pace and way in which people are pursuing their education is becoming much more diverse.”
Instead of limiting candidates to enrolling in their third year in college, NCARB now permits candidates to enroll with a high school diploma. And while the old program required candidates to work at a firm for eight weeks before being able to log creditable hours, the new system allows them to start accruing hours immediately. NCARB also adopted a more relaxed reporting rule. In the past, if candidates did not report hours within six months, those hours were not usable. Now, hours acquired six or more months in the past can be counted towards a candidate’s total hours.
“We’re also trying to push a ‘get it done’ mentality among architecture candidates. By the time they finish all of the requirements for licensure, many people are in their early 30s. We want to be much more aggressive in our outreach efforts to encourage people in any way we can to finish their programs in less time.”
NCARB hopes to make progress in this area with the NCARB Integrated Path initiative, which accepted proposals from more than a dozen architecture schools to implement an integrated path to licensure within academic programs accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). This initiative will result in a more structured experience for students enrolled in an NCARB-accepted path that offers the ability to complete the requirements for architectural licensure at the time of graduation. The NCARB Integrated Path initiative invited programs accredited by the NAAB to propose approaches that would result in completing the requirements of the Intern Development Program (IDP) and the opportunity to take each division of the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®) before graduation. NCARB will soon announce the academic programs that will be able to offer the integrated path to licensure.
A Streamlined Process for International Architects
NCARB also recently overhauled its certification process for foreign architects. Its member boards agreed to discontinue the current Broadly Experienced Foreign Architect (BEFA) Program in favor of a simplified alternative for receiving an NCARB Certificate. The change, effective July 1, 2016, will optimize the process for foreign architects who are licensed but do not currently meet the requirements for the NCARB Certificate.
The new alternative for foreign licensees will replace the current BEFA Program’s requirements, eliminating the committee dossier review and the need to document seven years of credentialed practice in a foreign country. Instead, foreign architects will be required to document completion of the Intern Development Program (IDP) experience requirements and successfully complete the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®) to obtain NCARB certification.
“By imposing the same experience and examination criteria on foreign architects as we do in U.S. architect candidates for certification, we address knowledge of U.S. codes and facility with English as the primary U.S. language,” said NCARB President Dale McKinney, FAIA, NCARB, in a press release. “The new alternative will be more automated, increasing objectivity and helping reduce fees associated with the dossier and interview requirements.”
The Great “Intern” Title Debate
NCARB often takes a leadership role in establishing proper nomenclature within the architecture profession. It recently released its position on a debate that has been picking up steam in the profession regarding the term “intern.” Many in the field are voicing concerns about the negative connotations of the word intern, stressing that the term does not fairly represent the legitimate work those individuals contribute to their firms, not to mention the fact that many “interns” have graduated from college. 
“We offered to explore the issue from a regulatory perspective and formed a task force to do so,” said Mr. Armstrong. “The only word that we feel NCARB is responsible for regulating is the word ‘architect,” because it requires licensure. ‘Intern’ is more a marketplace word, rather than a regulatory one. However, we did decide to take a leadership role by eliminating it from our own official terminology over the next year.”
NCARB’s new initiative will sunset the usage of the term “intern” as a way to describe those who are working to become architects versus those who are already licensed architects. NCARB will work with U.S. licensing boards and the architect community to implement its recommendations to restrict regulatory language to post-licensure status only and remove use of “intern” terminology. The council refrained from prescribing a new term to this population within the architecture profession, and simply calls for the removal of the term “intern.”
Aside from the data it produces about the profession, NCARB advocates for the profession in ways that tangibly contribute to a stronger field overall.
“We want to demystify and streamline the process candidates go through to become architects,” said Mr. Armstrong. “The profession itself needs to engage and mentor these emerging professionals. We need to become more responsive, more accessible, and less aloof. Licensure needs to be celebrated in firms, and also promoted more at the educational level.”