Students aspiring to study architecture can appear for the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) twice a year from the forthcoming academic year, Vijay Garg, President - Council of Architecture (COA), told presspersons here recently.
“While the first exam will be conducted in April, the second would be in July. A student can write either one or both the exams. The best of the two results will be taken into account for admission. This decision has been arrived after receiving suggestions from various quarters like the state governments, architecture colleges, parents, students, etc,” said Mr. Garg.
“We are making certain structural changes with respect to entry of students and initiatives to develop the field of architecture,” he said.
“Students who had studied physics, chemistry and mathematics can appear for the NATA exam from the forthcoming academic year. This has been done because now the emphasis is on technology-oriented buildings and it is easy for science students to understand it,” he said . The Council has put forward a proposal for national-level counselling and if all the universities agree, it could lead to the possibility of a student appearing for counselling anywhere for getting admitted into an architecture college in any part of the country. He also added that the reservation criteria of different States would be taken into consideration while formulating such a mechanism.
Mr.Garg mentioned that at present 1 lakh students appear for NATA exam, out of which around 35,000 pass. Pointing out the demand supply gap for architects, Mr.Garg said that while there was need for around 20 lakh architects, there are only about 1 lakh registered architects in the country.
Mr.Garg also observed that the Council has been representing to the various state governments to take steps to increase the involvement of architects in projects such as Smart City.Mr. Garg sought to clear the misconception that only elite people hire architects to design buildings. “Architects will bring in more sustainable features into the built environment. We are planning to make a documentary to create awareness about the importance of architects, among the general public”, he said. The Council is also planning to release a video for higher secondary school students, to make them aware of the opportunities available in the field of architecture.