Baylor University Launches Hybrid Master of Architecture Program
According to Baylor University’s Interim Chair for the Department of Human Sciences and Design Elise King, IDEC, NCIDQ, “Architecture shapes more than buildings; it shapes the human experience.”
“Architecture can nurture belonging, beauty, and care for creation,” she explained. “It can make spaces and tasks more accessible for all users, or it can create barriers and exclude.”
It is this belief in the power of architecture and design to impact health and wellbeing that fueled and inspired the Department of Human Sciences in Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences to develop a new degree program—the Master of Architecture (MArch). Approved by the Baylor Board of Regents in November 2025, this professional graduate degree program will welcome its first cohort in summer 2027.
“We are excited to see Baylor’s Master of Architecture program take shape after months of planning and collaboration,” Debra Harris, PhD, Professor of Interior Design, said. “This program represents an important investment in preparing architects who unite creativity, research, and faith to address challenges in health, sustainability, and the role of the built environment. It reflects Baylor’s mission to develop graduates who lead with vision, skill, and purpose in service to communities worldwide.”
Launching a faith-informed, health-focused MArch program opens the door for Baylor to serve unmet demand, fill a growing professional gap, and expand the University’s expertise in the built environment as a vital research domain. Importantly, it offers Baylor a distinct and needed Christian voice in the national conversation on architecture, health, sustainability, and human flourishing, and positions Robbins College and the University to shape this field.
Following the success of several other Robbins College graduate professional programs, the new MArch degree is designed using a hybrid model. The curriculum will combine online coursework with immersive, in-person learning experiences, offering students the “best of both worlds” in terms of program accessibility and academic quality.
Building on the strength of Baylor’s undergraduate, CIDA-accredited Interior Design program, the MArch will advance an interdisciplinary model that bridges theory and practice, creativity and research, and design and stewardship. Open to students with a pre-professional undergraduate degree in architecture as well as those with a degree in interior design, the new program will provide an accessible, accelerated pathway for students to pursue the professional study of architecture.
“As an alumna of Baylor’s Interior Design program, seeing this next chapter take shape is deeply meaningful,” King shared. “Now more than ever, we need architects who are not only highly skilled but who approach their work with humility, curiosity, and purpose—designers whose practice is grounded in compassion and a commitment to human flourishing. Baylor is the perfect home for cultivating that vision.”
ABOUT ROBBINS COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Established in 2014, Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences seeks to enhance health, quality of life, and human flourishing for all individuals and communities through education, research, and innovation. It includes six academic departments—Communication Sciences and Disorders; Health, Human Performance, and Recreation; Human Sciences and Design; Occupational Therapy; Physical Therapy; and Public Health—along with the Division of Health Professions, which houses the Master of Physician Assistant Studies program. Robbins College offers 13 bachelor’s degrees, eight master’s degrees, and six doctoral degrees, as well as nine graduate programs in partnership with the U.S. Army. Graduate programs in Robbins College are offered in a variety of modalities, including on campus, online, and hybrid.