NCES Data on U.S. Programs in Architecture and Related Fields

The interactive graphics on these pages visualize public data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) on every U.S. institution offering architecture or related majors. The NCES is the federal entity primarily responsible for collecting and analyzing data related to education, and this data is gathered from institutions through a federal system of interrelated and required surveys called the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). The data covers enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid. The data is primarily made available through the College Navigator website, directed at students and parents; and through the IPEDS Data Center, primarily for researchers.

While a drawback of this dataset is that it does not distinguish between NAAB accredited and non-accredited degrees, its scope and completeness allow for a rich view into demographics and institutional characteristics in architectural education. ACSA analyses and visualizations based on this data will be shared on the pages linked at the left, on an ongoing basis.

ACSA’s first look at this data resulted in a searchable Map of Programs and List of Programs at U.S. institutions offering programs in architecture and eight related majors. These pages include some interactive charts on institution-level characteristics such as funding type, Carnegie Classification, enrollment, graduation rate, and net price. By combining NCES data with directory information from ACSA and NAAB, these visualizations distinguish NAAB-accredited, NAAB-candidate, and non-professional architecture programs. This is a distinction that cannot be made in the visualizations of data on enrollment or graduate counts on other pages in this section.

The Graduates and Institutions page explores data counting every 2012-13 graduate in architecture, comparing architecture to eight related majors and to all majors institution-wide at institutions offering architecture-related programs. In addition to major, you can filter and search funding type, Carnegie Classification, state, and other institutional characteristics; and by the gender and ethnicity of graduates.

Ethnicity and Gender of Graduates focuses on demographic information in this same data. Here you can find searchable and filterable graphics on the gender balance within each ethnic group (which includes U.S.-recognized races, Hispanics, and nonresident Aliens or international students); a comparison of architecture-related majors by demographic representation; and a comparison of the ethnic and gender balance in architecture-related majors with the demographics of the U.S. population overall.

There are many more topics and perspectives that can be explored through public NCES data on architecture education. Please let us know how you are using this data and what you’d like to see in the future, by contacting Kendall Nicholson, Director of Research + Information.