WASHINGTON — The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) has approved a significant modification to its reporting requirement known as the “six-month rule” for credit in the Intern Development Program (IDP), which defines experience required in architectural internships to be eligible to become a licensed architect.

The NCARB Board of Directors approved the policy change at its meeting preceding the NCARB Annual Business Meeting held in Philadelphia. The modified rule will go into effect July 1, 2014.

This new adjustment allows credit for intern experience that occurred up to five years previous to the current reporting requirements of six months. Credit for experience older than eight months will be valued at 50 percent for up to five years, after which any experience would be ineligible for credit.

Consistent with the ARE

“This adjustment creates a parallel with our Architect Registration Examination rule for honoring examination results for five years, emphasizing a consistent position that activity along the licensure path holds its value for five years,” said NCARB President Blakely C. Dunn, AIA, NCARB. He added that by preserving a 100 percent value for experience earned and reported within eight months, interns will continue to be incentivized to report their experience a timely manner.

This adjustment arose from earlier Board discussions about ways to simplify the IDP process, and after collecting input from architect volunteers and the 2012 and 2013 NCARB Intern Think Tanks, a group of interns who conducted research and developed concepts around what the future of internship could look like.

The goal of this and other recently implemented improvements, which include the launch of online and mobile app tools and adjustments to the academic credit eligibility, is to better facilitate and acknowledge the value of experience in the path to licensure.

 For more information, visit www.ncarb.org.