New Delhi: Students with Commerce or Humanities background can also pursue their career in architecture. Many students still are under the notion, that it is mandatory take up science at intermediate level for getting admission in the architecture course. In fact, according to the Council of Architecture (CoA), only Maths is essential to apply for Bachelor of Architecture contrary to the popular view that those who haven’t studied Physics, Chemistry and Maths (PCM) can’t dream of becoming architects.
Prof Vijay Sohoni, President CoA, said that candidates are required to study Maths in Class XII and must have secured at least 50% aggregate to apply for architecture. Earlier, English was also required but the requirement has been dropped now. He also mentioned that school passouts remain unaware of the latest eligibility criteria for architecture and only science student’s end up applying in the architecture colleges in the country. Despite the fact that, CoA has often advertised the eligibility criteria in newspapers, only 10-15% of the students in each architecture institution are from the non-science streams. All the rest are science students in spite of the fact that knowledge of any science subject is not essential for architecture.
There are 142 architecture colleges in the country out of which 123 conduct admissions through a National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA). The others are regional and centrally-funded institutes, which consider the AIEEE rankings. The main reason of the confusion is AIEEE ranking, which puts it in the same bracket as engineering. The entrance exam for architecture and engineering is clubbed under AIEEE that requires a student to have passed class XII with PCM. A case in this regard is still pending in the Supreme Court. After six cases were settled in different high courts, it was decided that CoA was the sole authority to regulate the education in architecture. After this, in January 2006, CoA notified that only maths was essential for applying to architecture.
Therefore, students who had Maths in class XII and want to pursue architecture can take NATA. NATA is an online test conducted across 100 centres in the city. The test is not annual. It is usually conducted between January and September. One needs to approach the designated centre, take an appointment and appear for the test at the allotted time.
