Graduates of the PA program must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) to become a certified PA and to obtain a permanent state license.

The figure below shows the PANCE pass rates for the last five classes of South College graduates. The first cohort to graduate at the Atlanta extension campus was the Class of 2021. For each year, the lower number is the percentage of students in the class that passed the exam on the first attempt. The upper number is the total percentage of students in the class that passed the exam following re-examinations.

The official National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA) PANCE Pass Rate Summary Report is HERE.

PAs must be licensed by the state in which they intend to practice before seeing patients.  State laws and regulations for Physician Assistants vary from state to state.  Statutory and regulatory requirements for initial licensure and license renewal for each state can also be found via this link – https://www.aapa.org/download/19739/. As indicated via this site, graduation from an ARC-PA accredited program meets initial licensure requirements for all states (not required currently by Minnesota) and the passing of the PANCE national certification exam is required.  Another resource is https://www.nccpa.net/become-certified. The South College Knoxville/Atlanta PA program is ARC-PA accredited and we work diligently with all students in preparation for the PANCE.