Architecture courses see fewer aspirants in India
Registrations for the national entrance exam for architecture have dropped by more than 40,000 for the upcoming academic year, revealed data by the National Testing Agency (NTA).
The dearth of quality teachers or change in the admission eligibility rules for aspirants may have contributed to this fall in numbers.
According to the NTA, of 1.80 lakh students who had registered for the first phase of the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE)-Mains test in January this year for the current academic year, less than 1.38 lakh students have registered for the first phase of the exam for the upcoming academic year.
The first of the two phases of JEE-Mains, which includes a paper for Bachelors in Architecture course aspirants, will be held in January 2020.
Experts have attributed this decrease in the number of applicants on the change in the eligibility rules introduced by the Council of Architecture (COA), which has now left many students ineligible to clear the entrance exam.
COA’s new rule, implemented in 2018, stated that a student has to score 50% or above individually, in the Physics-Chemistry-Maths (PCM) subject group, as opposed to an overall 50% in Class 12 exams.
Earlier, students could have less than 50% scores in any of the PCM subjects.
Owing to the new rule, several students were ineligible for the admissions to architecture courses, despite clearing their entrance exam, because of their Class 12 PCM scores.
“Earlier, an overall 50% or above score in Class 12 board exams was accepted and students could apply for admissions for the JEE-Mains test. However, the rules have been tweaked and students have to mandatorily score 50% in PCM subjects, leaving thousands of students disheartened and helpless,” said Rajiv Mishra, principal, Sir JJ College of Architecture.
Twenty students had also approached the Bombay high court (HC) against the implementation of the new rule, but they were not granted any relief.
“Because of the abrupt introduction of this new eligibility criterion, many students could not seek admission, and as a result, many architecture institutes in the country were left with vacant seats this academic (2019-20) year. In some cases, while a college’s intake capacity was of 80 students, only 10 aspirants could confirm admissions,” added Mishra.
Principals said that the falling standard of teaching quality in architecture colleges is also one of the reasons for the decline in the demand for the course.
“Most well-known architects feel teaching is a menial job and refuse to lecture, while those who approach colleges are architects with no on-field experience. This problem has plagued many architecture institutes across the country,” said the principal of another architecture college.
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