Council of Architecture Approves Single Entrance Test Proposal; Members Object
- Single entrance exam for admission to Architecture courses approved by CoA.
- 2 of the council members questioned the authority of EC to approve such an exam.
- Currently, most of the institutions conduct admissions on the basis of NATA.
The proposal of conducting a single entrance exam for admission to Architecture programmes offered by various colleges has been approved by the Executive Committee (EC) of the Council of Architecture (CoA).
However, there are disagreements within the committee as two of the council members are questioning the authority of EC to approve such an exam. CoA had announced on May 30 that a National Entrance Test for Architecture will be made mandatory for admissions.
A draft was circulated by R K Oberoi, Registrar of CoA, consisting the regulations regarding the National Architecture Entrance Examination 2018 seeking the approval of Council members. According to Oberoi’s letter, the regulations were accepted by the EC to improve the quality of architecture education.
According to the draft regulations, the national-level exam organised by CoA will be made compulsory for admission to all undergraduate architectural courses in all government as well as private institutions from the academic 2018-19 session.
Currently, most of the institutions conduct admissions on the basis of NATA. It was earlier conducted by CoA multiple times a year. However, from 2017, NATA was changed to single-day exam format in online mode.
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AICTE’s nominee to the CoA, A R Ramanathan, and Maharashtra government’s nominee Habeeb Khan have objected to the single entrance exam proposed in the draft. They replied to Oberoi’s letter and said that the EC’s decision is not valid without consulting all the seven council members.
Ramanthan wrote in his letter that the decision is a policy issue and the EC is not authorised to carry out this decision. He also added that all the council members should discuss the matter before deciding. Khan wrote that the test is supposed to test an aspirant’s aptitude rather than his memorising ability.
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The move to withdraw the Architects (Amendment) Bill, 2010, from the Rajya Sabha has been approved by the Cabinet. It was done on the proposal of the HRD Ministry. The Bill gives the Centre more authority over the CoA.