RECORD’s 2016 rankings of top architecture school programs, provided by Design Intelligence, the research arm of the Design Futures Council, comes amid good news that more women are being trained as architects. Women now compose 44 percent of those enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs. (In 2011, that percentage was 41 percent.)

At the same time, there is a growing debate about the value of architectural education. Enrollment of first-year architecture students dropped almost 20 percent over a five-year period ending in 2013, Frank J. Mruk III, associate dean at New York Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Design, pointed out in an op-ed piece in the September 29 Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Mruk argues that the drop comes from the “outdated, costly and time-­consuming qualification process” and suggests developing a tiered system where architectural training will be specific to the skills and goals of the students.