The new scheme – Self governance and restructuring

Back ground..

Prof. Yashpal Committee report on Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education is submitted to the Ministry of Human Resources Development and the ministry is likely to implement the advice of the committee. The implementation will amount to major overhaul and restructuring of higher education systems in India.

As a part of scheme even Architecture education is likely to change substantially.

The Change..

It is expected that the course will be reduced to four years, taking away the practical training from curriculum. The B. Arch. Degree will be conferred at successful completion of four year course. However, this will not be professional degree. The candidate will be required to work for at least one year after he completes B. Arch. Only after that he will be eligible to appear for professional registration examination carried out by the council of Architecture. On passing this exam he will be registered with the council and can use title of Architect.

Another change will be the education and institutes will move to self regulatory mode. The colleges will be required to maintain the minimum standards in Architectural education on their own without monitoring from any regulating authority. Possibly, the current system of granting intake by the regulatory body will go and institutes themselves will have to decide how many students they will admit. It means the institution will have to introspect and decide the number of students they can sustain without compromising on quality of education. Initially this likely to lead to chaos. Few institutions may admit huge number of students and not able to impart the expected quality of education. However, over the period of time, I trust, the system will mature and institutions after learning some hard lessons will come out with some standards for themselves.

There are some questions arising of this arrangement. Will this four years degree be accepted as UG qualification by the Indian and/or foreign universities for admission to masters degree course? Or the candidate will have to appear for CoA exam and get registered as an architect before he /she can apply for admission?

Let us hope all these questions get answered from MHRD or CoA before the scheme gets implemented.