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Landscaping features and places to hang out mark the CCA.

There is a need for passionate teachers who can instill a feeling of love for the subjects in the students. Finally, the syllabus calls for a revamp.

Master architect Louis Kahn said: “Schools began with a man under a tree who didn’t know he was a teacher, discussions with few others who didn’t know they were students.” Today, with all the amenities available, stringent efforts should be made to upgrade the institutes and provide a better future for the next generation of architects.

What do students want?
During my thesis I gained views from the students of CCA, CEPT (Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology), Sushant School of Architecture and JJ College of Architecture about what they thought needed to be done in architectural education.

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Here are some of the responses I assimilated:

• You can’t teach architecture.
• One needs a strong and energetic faculty who can inculcate zeal and enthusiasm in students.
• COA has prescribed certain norms for a faculty. Hence, in the process of upgrading their own knowledge, sometimes the faculty’s focus deviates from the knowledge they impart to the students.
• The interaction between the faculty and students is missing.
• Team work should be encouraged.
• Though a target may be fixed for submissions, the working times should not be specified.
• Casual and creative spaces are required, rather than formal spaces.

Schools that top the ranks
The COA is in the process of putting into practice the NAAC grading of colleges. Till date only three or four colleges have been put through it, and the Council is trying to evolve a system by which they can grade colleges – though they feel that since it has a subjective element, the grading is not as easy as it may be in engineering colleges.

The admission procedure for all colleges in one state is now the same and taken care of by the state. For instance, for all the colleges in Maharashra, the procedure is taken care of by the Maharashtra Association of Schools of Architecture.

However, looking at the current status one could say that the architectural colleges that rank in the top 20 in India are the following (in alphabetical order):

• Aayojan School of Architecture, Jaipur
• Academy of Architecture, Mumbai
• Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad
• Chandigarh College of Architecture, Chandigarh
• Chitkara School of Planning & Architecture, Patiala
• College of Architecture, Vastu Kala Academy, New Delhi
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee
• Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture & Environmental Studies, Mumbai
• L S Raheja School of Architecture, Mumbai
• M S University of Baroda, Vadodara
• Padmashree Dr.D.Y.Patil College of Architecture, Mumbai
• Rizvi College of Architecture, Mumbai
• Sathyabama University, Chennai
• School of Architecture and Planning, Chennai
• School of Architecture, CSI Institute of Technology, Secunderabad
• School of Architecture , R.V.College of Engineering , Bangalore
• School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
• Sir JJ College of Architecture, Mumbai
• Sushant School of Art and Architecture, Gurgaon

Note: Bangalore-based Apurva Bose Dutta, is an architect pursuing architectural journalism.