The release of new eligibility criteria has confused the B.Arch aspirants and some of them have even demanded the extension of the old rule. 

The Maharashtra common entrance test (MH-CET) cell published the information brochure for admissions to various undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) professional courses on its website. 

However, the students aspiring for the Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) seats waited as they were not aware of the modifications made to the eligibility requirements to the B.Arch admissions. As a result, most of the students feared the loss of seats in top architecture colleges across the state. 

Earlier, the students aspiring for the B.Arch programme were admitted based on either National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA) or the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE-Mains). 

However, this year, the Council of Architecture (CoA) has notified that the JEE scores will be accepted for admissions to National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Central Universities, and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). 

In contrast, the NATA scores will be accepted by the other institutes to admit the students into the B.Arch programme. As a result, many aspirants have sought the help of Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) to extend the old eligibility criteria to a year, as it will allow students to get admitted to the B.Arch programme with JEE scores. 

A senior DTE authority on the condition of anonymity said that the CoA has informed the authorities to consider only NATA scores and any change to the rule will be approved by the same authority. 

NATA Eligibility Criteria 2021

One of the aspirants' parents said the information brochure shared by the admission authority mentions the acceptance of NATA scores, but it doesn't indicate that the scores of other equivalent exams like JEE will not be considered from this year onwards. 

Further, the parent said that the information brochure was released only two days back, while the students took up the entrance exams in February, March, and April 2021, who were also unaware that the JEE scores will not be accepted for B.Arch admission. 

JEE Main Admission Cut off - JoSAA Cutoff Ranks 

This year, the JEE and NATA exams were conducted in multiple sessions, which gave students the option to choose the best score out of the multiple sessions and at the same time, it also gave the students the option of a back session if they've missed the previous session owing to the Covid-19 related issues.

NATA 2022 Participating Colleges

The father of another aspirant said that his daughter appeared for the first two sessions of NATA and two sessions of JEE, wherein her JEE score is 98 percentile, the NATA score is low. Until the announcement of change in eligibility criteria was made as she was under the impression that JEE score will be applicable. 

However, now with the modification in the eligibility criteria, she might lose a seat in a college of her choice, the aspirant's father said. 

JoSAA 2021 Seat Allotment Result for Round 2 Counselling Released 

Earlier, the Madras High Court (HC) gave interim relief to two candidates who requested to be allowed to participate in the B.Arch counselling rounds at Anna University based on their JEE score for the academic year 2021-22.

Eventually, the Madras HC instructed the university to accept both the candidate's registrations and stated that the outcome will be subject to the students’ plea that challenges the admission rule.

JEE Main Counselling 2021