In March 2025, RAND released the Building Impact report, highlighting gaps between architectural education and practice. The independent study—which featured surveys and interviews with hundreds of architecture students, faculty, and practitioners—identified several key issues related to the affordability, accessibility, and applicability of college curricula.
Several of these issues have been discussed within the architecture profession for years, driving interest in expanding pathways into architecture outside of a traditional accredited degree program. As NCARB continues exploring opportunities to create more Pathways to Practice, findings from the Building Impact report will shape our research and development. Here are five key takeaways related to licensure accessibility:
1. Architecture program application processes and requirements—as well as post-graduation licensure requirements—create barriers that keep students from pursuing a career in architecture.
Establishing more accessible entry points is essential to reducing the burden on students and increasing interest in the profession for years to come. Two related issues called out in the study include:
- Challenges creating program application portfolios: Many students who participated in the Building Impact study noted that the process of putting together application portfolios—often with different rules and requirements across programs—was overly burdensome, especially for first-generation college students or those with no family history in design professions. For some participants, this impacted the accessibility of accredited programs.
- Lack of awareness of accreditation requirements: Additionally, many students are unaware that most states require a degree from a National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) accredited program for initial licensure, leading some students to attend a program that won’t support their licensure goals. Approximately 44% of students who didn’t attend a NAAB-accredited program said that current licensure requirements present a barrier to practice.
By creating additional entry points into the profession, NCARB can ensure that all licensure candidates, regardless of background, have a pathway to licensed practice.
2. Student debt can have long-term consequences for students, faculty, and practicing professionals, which may contribute to issues related to attrition and lack of representation in the field.
Throughout the study, students and practitioners frequently identified a mismatch between compensation in the profession and the cost of an architecture degree. Additionally, student debt levels were often not manageable based on the average starting salary for architects—many M.Arch. graduates would fail a debt-to-earnings test.
While the cost of higher education in the United States is not constrained to architecture programs, ensuring that pathways are available outside of a four-, five-, or six-year degree may help reduce the cost burden associated with the current single path to licensure.
3. Students often felt they weren’t sufficiently prepared at the beginning of their architecture studies to understand the path to licensure.
While some students reported receiving guidance from their educators, many indicated that a lack of licensure awareness was a barrier to entering practice. NCARB and NOMA’s Building on Belonging data indicates that this lack of awareness can prevent students from making strategic, informed decisions—such as reporting experience early, choosing a licensure-focused internship, or overlapping requirements when available.
Additional flexibility in the licensure process, as well as early-career outreach, can help licensure candidates choose a path to licensure that suits their experience and needs.
4. Both students and practitioners desire a greater emphasis on technical skills and hands-on experience during architecture school.
Tensions between what should be taught at school versus what should be learned on the job leave graduates underprepared to transition from student to working professional. Only half of students felt their education adequately prepared them in technical skills, such as documentation and building technology systems—areas that practicing professionals indicated were very important in practice.
While NCARB has limited influence over program curricula, we hope to encourage programs to consider how the knowledge and skills required for licensure (as laid out in NCARB’s Competency Standard) can be taught in architecture school.
5. Licensure has a significant impact on practitioners’ feelings of belonging in the profession.
Currently, many would-be architects forego licensure when they cannot find a path to become an architect that suits their education and experience background. But data from the Building Impact report shows that earning a license is important to feeling a sense of belonging in architecture: architects who participated in the study were more likely to report they completely belong (50%) compared to unlicensed practicing professionals (32%). This was especially true for underrepresented individuals.
This finding highlights the importance of ensuring that licensure is accessible for individuals of all backgrounds.
About the Building Impact Report
The outcome of data collected through surveys and focus groups with architecture students, faculty, and practitioners, the Building Impact report provides key insights into the accessibility, affordability, and applicability of architectural education. The study was commissioned by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and NCARB, with support from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), to better understand the current relationship between education and practice.
The Building Impact report is a direct follow-up to the 1996 Building Community report (also known as the “Boyer Report”), which identified several areas where education was misaligned with practice at the time and provided recommendations to build a stronger relationship between the two. Now, nearly 30 years later, the findings of the Building Impact report demonstrate that many of those gaps still exist.
Read the full report at www.ncarb.org/RAND.
