Professional degrees are different. First off, an architectural degree from an accredited school is 5 years, not 4. If you don't have a degree from an accredited school, you're somewhat limited in opportunities in the field. It used to be that one could take the licensing exam without a degree as long as he or she worked for a licensed architect for at least seven years, but that has since been disallowed in many jurisdictions. If he doesn't have a degree from an accredited school, he probably is being locked out of a lot of the potential architectural jobs out there.