The licensure process isn’t cheap, and its cost has been a known barrier to emerging professionals, particularly those right out of architecture school. The shift by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) to offer the test sections on a rolling, pay-as-you-go basis, rather than in a single week each year, has helped to allay the burden. This week, the Council went a step further in announcing reduced fees for three of its programs: the NCARB Certificate, the Architectural Experience Program (AXP), and version 5.0 of the Architect Registration Exam (ARE).
Effective June 29, the cost for the NCARB Certificate will be reduced from $1,500 to $1,100, with the same annual renewal and transmittal fees of $225 and $400, respectively.
The fee for the AXP, which was previously known as the Intern Development Program, has been cut to $100 for the first year, versus the previous $350 for the initial three years, and has been raised from $75 to $85 for the subsequent years. NCARB anticipates that the reduction in time it will take individuals to complete the new AXP programming versus the IDP will result in an overall savings of around $60.
NCARB will also honor the current payment plan for individuals who have paid the full $350 fee for the first three years of the program and won’t charge the $85 renewal fee until that period is up. If only the first $100 installment of the original $350 was paid, NCARB will waive the remaining $250 balance and apply the $85 renewal fee annually going forward.
When ARE 5.0 launches later this year, and then through June 2018, all six divisions of the licensure exam will cost $210 each in a pay-as-you-go format, or $1,260 total. The ARE 4.0 will continue to cost $210 per division, of which there are seven, amounting to $1,470 overall.
And, finally, beginning later this year, all seven divisions of the ARE 4.0 will be available at Prometric test centers in London, Abu Dhabi, and Hong Kong at a pay-as-you-go-rate of $210 per division, down from $310.
