In the United States, most state architecture registration boards require a degree from an accredited program as a prerequisite for licensure. NDSU continues to have the state’s only programs in architecture and landscape architecture that meet the accreditation requirement.

The NDSU professional architecture degree program received a full six-year term of accreditation, effective Jan. 1, 2012. NDSU is one of only 95 schools nationwide with an accredited professional Master of Architecture degree program. NDSU also has one of 30 accredited Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree programs in the country. “The two accredited degree programs serve a large area in the Upper Great Plains,” said Ganapathy Mahalingam, interim chair of the Department of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. “They are part of a limited number of schools nationwide.”

The National Architectural Accrediting Board is the sole agency authorized to accredit U.S. professional degree programs in architecture. It requires an accredited program to produce graduates who are competent in a range of intellectual, spatial, technical and interpersonal skills; understand the historical, socio-cultural and environmental context of architecture; are able to solve architectural design problems, including the integration of technical systems and health and safety requirements; and comprehend architects’ roles and responsibilities in society. 

Since 1975, the board’s conditions for accreditation have emphasized self-assessment and student performance as central elements of its model.

NDSU’s landscape architecture program also received a provisional two-year accreditation in the spring semester of 2012. The program’s curriculum is reviewed periodically by the nationally organized Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board and has been accredited since 1992. 

NDSU accepted 48 architecture and 17 landscape architecture students into the program this fall.

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.