CHENNAI: Not only medical and engineering aspirants, even those aspiring to join architecture-related courses from Tamil Nadu are in troubled waters now. That’s because one-fourth of the seats can’t be filled due to the State government’s ‘unaltered’ eligibility policy.
While all States have agreed to consider the national-level Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) scores as an equivalent to National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) for admissions, Tamil Nadu has a unique admission procedure for these five-year courses.
Since 2008, BArch and BPlanning seats in Tamil Nadu architecture colleges have been filled through single-window counselling for which the rank list is prepared based on the candidates’ Class XII scores and NATA performances.
However, out of the 2,720 available seats in 53 technical institutes, more than 1,000 are expected to remain vacant this year as only 2,009 from Tamil Nadu have obtained the minimum score (80 out of 200, ie, 40%) to clear NATA 2017.
Speaking to Express, RK Oberoi, Registrar, Council of Architecture (CoA), the apex body which regulates architecture-related courses in the country, said: “Out of 4,334 applications we received this year, 3,264 appeared but only 2,009 cleared the test.” This indicates that the remaining 1,255 turned ineligible for BArch admissions in Tamil Nadu.
On the lines of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), JEE and other national-level competitive exams, the performance of Tamil Nadu candidates was lower than their counterparts from other States. While the national success rate was close to 65%, Tamil Nadu recorded a rate of only 55.4%.
Though the demand to include JEE as an equivalent to NATA has been on the cards for nearly a decade, the State government has remained firm on not changing the eligibility criteria. Though the CoA has again sent a clarification recently that States can consider JEE scores for architecture admissions, sources from the State higher education department said there were no plans to reverse its stance. However, some deemed universities and self-financing colleges (for management quota seats) continue to consider JEE scores.
This year, online registration for 2,720 seats to be filled through counselling by Anna University (Secretary, Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions) began on June 25 and the last date for registration and submission of application is July 6. Every year, counselling for architecture-related courses begins a fortnight after engineering counselling. But with the latter getting postponed due to the controversy shrouding NEET and medical admissions, architecture counselling was also postponed and dates are likely to be announced only after the State government concluded medical counselling.
“Hence, some private institutions have spiked up their capitation and tuition fee to `4-5 lakh and we are left with no options,” said a Chennai-based parent, who is awaiting further announcement from the government to admit his son in a BArch course.
Though this has left the current batch in the lurch, it has given more hope for those from the previous batch (2016). Government sources said that NATA scores were valid for two years and with a relatively easier test last year, many from the 2016 batch who missed out last year have a better chance now.