Bruce Gibson
National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB) Statement on Accreditation
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.
The University at Buffalo is the only campus in the State University of New York system to offer the accredited professional master of architecture (M.Arch.) degree. The Buffalo Department of Architecture offers the following NAAB-accredited degree programs:
• M.Arch. (pre-professional undergraduate degree + 64 graduate credits); and,
• M.Arch. (non-pre-professional undergraduate degree + 112 graduate credits).
Next accreditation visit for all programs: 2012.
The publication: NAAB Conditions for Accreditation (including the Student Performance Criteria) is available on the NAAB web site at http://www.naab.org/accreditation/.
