Statement on Accreditation from the National Architecture Accrediting Board (NAAB)
In the United
States, most state registration boards require a degree from an
accredited professional degree program as a prerequisite for
licensure. The National
Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), which is the sole
agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs
in architecture, recognizes three types of degrees: the Bachelor
of Architecture, the Master of Architecture, and the Doctor of
Architecture. A program may be granted a 6-year, 3-year, or
2-year term of accreditation, depending on the extent of its
conformance with established educational standards.
Doctor of
Architecture and
Master
of Architecture degree programs may consist of a
pre-professional undergraduate degree and a professional graduate
degree that, when earned sequentially, constitute an accredited
professional education. However, the pre-professional degree is not, by
itself, recognized as an accredited degree.
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, College of
Fine and Applied Arts,
School of Architecture offers the following NAAB-accredited degree
programs:
Master of
Architecture
(pre-professional degree plus
62 graduate credit hours)
(undergraduate degree plus 65
prerequisite credit hours and
54 graduate credit
hours)
Accreditation of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture
The School of Architecture offers the Master of Architecture (M.
Arch) as the professional degree accredited by the NAAB. The
Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies (BSAS) is a
pre-professional undergraduate degree and is not a professional
degree accredited by the NAAB. The one-year M. Arch program is
1-year program for students who already hold a NAAB accredited B.
Arch or M. Arch and is therefore not unaccredited. Beginning with
incoming class of Fall 08, the nomenclature for the one year
master's degree has been the MSAS, Master of Science in
Architectural Studies. The PhD in Architecture is also not a
professional degree and is not accredited by the NAAB. The School
of Architecture received a full 6-year accreditation in 2009. The
next NAAB visit is scheduled for 2015. The School of Architecture
Accreditation reports are available at
http://www.arch.uiuc.edu/about/accreditation/
. The publication: NAAB Conditions for Accreditation
(including the Student Performance Criteria) is available on the
NAAB web site at
http://www.naab.org/
Additional Information
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