Arkansas

General Information on Arkansas Professional Geologist Licenses

Does state provide a license: Yes

Current Active Licensees

Title Licensees
Professional Geologist 668

License: Professional Geologist

Exam Entity: ASBOG

Licensing Board: Arkansas State Board of Registration for Professional Geologists

Licensing Board Website: https://arpgboard.org/

Continuing Education and Experience

Degree required:

Minimum degree level required to licensure as specified by the state regulations. ‘Other’ indicates that minimum education requirements must be met that are considered equivalent to a college degree, or minimum experience requirements must be met. See notes and applicable state laws and regulations for complete information.

  • Not specified

Majors accepted:

Majors defined in the state regulations as acceptable to obtain a professional geologist or geoscientist license, or for the specified environmental professional license in states without a PG license.

  • Related Geological Sciences
  • Earth Science
  • Geology
  • Engineering Geology
  • Geological Engineering

Courses required:

  • Not specified

Courses accepted:

  • Not specified

Geology credits required: Not available

Minimum number of semester hours in relevant course work required for licensure. Thirty (30) semester hours = forty-five (45) quarter hours; twenty-four (24) semester hours = thirty-six (36) quarter hours.

Credit information: An appropriate number of hours of geological courses that would normally constitute a geology degree are required and will be evaluated on a case by case basis.

Education Notes: See the state regulations for a complete explanation of the education requirements for licensure.

Years of experience required: 7

Experience credits needed: 4

Experience information: Each year of undergraduate study in the geological sciences shall count as one-half year of training up to a maximum of two years with a Bachelor Degree, and each year of graduate study shall count as a year of training for a two-year maximum with either a Masters Degree or a Doctor of Philosophy Degree.Credit for undergraduate study, graduate study, graduate courses, individually or in any combination thereof, shall in no case exceed a total of four years toward meeting the requirements for at least seven years of professional geological work as set forth above.

Continuing education requirements: No

Geologist in Training license available: Yes

Can take Fundamentals of Geology test before graduation: No

Fundamentals of Geology test details: The rules, regulations and board website do not specifically address taking the FG examination before degree completion. There is not language that is considered to be interpretable as such.

Legal Code Reference for GIT, FG: Rules of Arkansas State Board of Registration for Professional Geologists, Section 6

Sunset and Audit Legislation Information

Most registration and licensure systems include structural approaches to review both the need and operational effectiveness of the process.

Some states provide formal sunset evaluation processes for their licensure programs. Many also include a periodic audit process of the licensure program/agency, which can range from cursory financial reviews to comprehensive evaluation of program effectiveness.

The audit process is often leveraged when political pressure is applied to eliminate geologist licensure, so awareness of the history and codes for audits and sunset evaluations is critical to montioring the health of the licensure within the state.

Current modes for sunsetting evaluation: Audit

License subject to sunset review: No

License subject to audit review: Yes

Sunset regulation name: Sunset Laws

Sunset statute: Arkansas Code, Title 10. General Assembly, Appendix – Title 10 Sunset Laws

Sunset statute reference: https://portal.arkansas.gov/agency/bureau-of-legislative-research/service/arkansas-code-search-laws-and-statutes/

Sunset committee: Joint Interim Committees of the Arkansas General Assembly

Sunset notes: For information on the Legislative Joint Interim Committee, See Arkansas Code, Title 10. General Assembly, Chapter 3. Committees

Auditor name: Arkhansas Legislative Audit

Auditor website: http://www.arklegaudit.gov/

Audit statute: Arkansas Code, Title 10. General Assembly, Chapter 4. Legislative Audit, Subchapter 4. Arkansas Legislative Audit

Audit Statute abbreviation: Arkansas Code, Title 10. General Assembly, Chapter 4. Legislative Audit, Subchapter 4. Arkansas Legislative Audit Section 41-5A-1

Audit statute link: https://portal.arkansas.gov/agency/bureau-of-legislative-research/service/arkansas-code-search-laws-and-statutes/

Audit legislation committee: Legislative Joint Auditing Committee

Audit legislation committee website: http://www.arklegaudit.gov/

Audit notes: The Legislative Joint Auditing Committee is composed of 36 regular members (16 senators and 20 representatives) and up to 8 ex-officio members of the General Assembly.

Audit reference: Various Resources

Audit reference website: http://www.arklegaudit.gov/resources/default.aspx

Sunset and Audit Legislation History

Year Action Notes
1977 Sunset law created Review and Evaluation of State Agencies by Act 100 and Act 392 of 1977
1979 Sunset law amended TBD
1981 Sunset law amended TBD
1981 Sunset review Arkansas Geological Commission (Survey) added to list of agencies that would continue to function.
1987 Practice regulation The Registration of Geologists Act of 1987 was created by Act 701.
1997 ASBOG The first ASBOG exam was administered.
2013 Audit 1999-2013 Board annual audits by the Arkansas Legislative Audits
2013 None The Board was transferred to the Arkansas Geological Survey through Act 708 of 2013.
2017 Audit 2014-2017 Audit Reports of the Geological Survey
2019 Sunset law amended Sunset Law Unofficially updated with 2019 legislation through Act 1092 of the 2019 Regular Session. A new Title 25, Chapter 43, enacted by Act 910, is included. Unofficial updates are provisional only and do not include corrections and edits by the Arkansas Code Revision Commission. The final official version of the 2019 session will be available on Lexis Advance later in 2019.