Source: Dennis Law, 785-532-5950, delaw@k-state.edu
Prepared by: Diane Potts, 785-532-1090, potts@k-state.edu
Thursday, August 23, 2007
K-STATE COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND DESIGN PHASES OUT BACHELOR'S DEGREES
MANHATTAN -- In keeping with a national trend, bachelor's degrees are becoming a thing of the past at Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning and Design.
Although undergraduates who enrolled before fall 2006 will be allowed to complete a bachelor's, all students who started after that point had to commit to pursing a five-year master's degree in the college's various disciplines.
"As an institution, we are setting the pace in granting degrees which appropriately recognize the amount of academic effort our students undertake," said Dennis Law, dean of the college. "The degrees remain accredited, and graduates will be prepared for entry-level positions in the professions of architecture, interior architecture and product design or landscape architecture."
The changes were driven by the National Architectural Accrediting Board, which in 1998 decided that it would no longer accredit new bachelor's degrees in architecture, in essence devaluing the degree. Schools immediately began transforming their offerings into five-year master's programs.
K-State took that trend a step further by turning landscape architecture and interior architecture into five-year master's programs, the first institution in the country to do so, Law said.
The college also is kicking off a doctoral program in environmental design and planning; its first two Ph.D. candidates will start this fall.
"One of the challenges of higher education is to anticipate changes so that our programs continue to prepare students for the world they will inhabit after graduation," Law said. "These changes in our degree structure show our determination to be ahead of our peers in design education."
Students with undergraduate degrees in other fields still can pursue a master's in landscape architecture or in regional and community planning, but not in architecture. A two-year master's of science degree in architecture is available to graduates with professional experience or in architecture, but it is not accredited by the national board.
Among Law's goals for the college is an increase in its interdisciplinary scope.
"While we advertise ourselves as being 'interdisciplinary,' in reality we have been 'multidisciplinary,'" he said. "We have not taken full advantage of the opportunities we have as a comprehensive design college when it comes to real-life problem-solving or career exploration," particularly in upper-level design studios.
Law also would like to reach beyond his own college to professional architects as well as to students in business administration and architectural engineering.
"It is my hope that we can obtain the sponsorship of leading professional offices as part of the interdisciplinary setting to partner with our professors on project design management," Law said.