The National Council for Interior Design Qualification, Inc. (NCIDQ) exists to credential interior designers who have met minimum education and experience requirements and who have passed the NCIDQ Examination. NCIDQ does not and has never existed to assist individuals with architectural educations achieve the NCIDQ Certificate.
In 2009 the NCIDQ Board of Directors adopted a policy that allows applicants for the Certificate to apply if they have earned an
NAAB1- or
CACB2-accredited degree
in architecture. This policy is intended to allow individuals who had earned degrees in architecture, but who had migrated over the course of their career into interior design to qualify. This policy came about after a two-year study by an NCIDQ task force. That task force evaluated the variety of architectural educational programs and determined that NCIDQ was not in a position to support a program of establishing educational equivalency for architectural education, since we are an interior design credentialing body. At present this has the effect of denying applications from individuals with North American degrees in architectural engineering, 4-year pre-professional degrees in architecture, associates degrees in architectural technology; and degrees in architecture issued outside the U.S. and Canada. While this does prevent some applicants from becoming eligible for the NCIDQ Certificate, NCIDQ does not have the expertise in architectural education, nor are we affiliated with such organizations, to be able to evaluate every possible type of architecture degree and its applicability to interior design practice.
To allow graduates with architectural educations that are not NAAB- or CACB-accredited we do make an exception for applicants who hold the
National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) Certificate and have had their education evaluated by the Educational Evaluation Service for Architects (EESA). This does not mean that applicants for the NCIDQ Certificate can apply directly to NAAB to have an EESA evaluation completed. The EESA program is managed by the NAAB on behalf of NCARB – not NCIDQ. NCIDQ has no control over, or input into, this evaluation program.
Therefore, all applicants for the NCIDQ Certificate with degrees in architecture that were not accredited by NAAB or CACB must present evidence that they have earned both the NCARB Certificate and a copy of their EESA Evaluation. No exceptions will be made to this policy.
1National Architectural Accrediting Board
2Canadian Architectural Certification Board