The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has implemented changes to the Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL) program which will make two-year community college programs, and four-year undergraduate programs eligible for participation.
This means, for the first time, eligible two-year community colleges can apply to participate in IPAL, and help their students earn architecture licenses faster than the traditional path.
Four-year undergraduate programs—like Bachelor of Science (BS) Architecture programs—that qualify for admission into a National Architectural Accreditation Board (NAAB)-accredited master’s program are now also eligible for participation.
IPAL students are no longer required to take all six Architecture Registration Exams (AREs) before they graduate and receive their degree, NCARB said in a statement. However, IPAL students will be required to take all six of NCARB’s divisional practice exams. The full list of IPAL standards can be accessed here.
There are, today, 33 NAAB-accredited programs at 28 schools in the U.S. that offer, or are now developing, an IPAL option. This is meant to help students make progress on their AREs and AXP hours while earning their degrees, shortening the amount of time before licensure, which can take years.
The road to this change, however, hasn’t been all convivial.
In November 2023, AN published an op-ed by NCARB president Jon Baker about a statement NCARB made endorsing multiple pathways to licensure. AN received responses to Baker’s text, many of which were critical.
Thomas Fisher, a professor of architecture at the University of Minnesota; Michael J. Monti, executive director of the ACSA; Mo Zell, ACSA president; and Stephen Schreiber, NAAB president, shared their views in a separate AN article.
More recently, this week NCARB announced it had elected Edward T. Marley, of Arizona, as its President, among other leadership appointments. “I am excited to lead the organization through this critical time as we work to make meaningful impact, improving the licensure process for the next generation of architects,” Marley said in statement.
The news also arrives amid other recent changes impacting architecture education. José L.S. Gámez—the Dean of the College of Arts + Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte—will be the 2025–26 Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) president.
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