ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION IN INDIA: RAISING THE CAPABILITIES OF STUDENTS BY IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS OF HIGHER AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

As part of the globalization process, India has been witness to a flood of developmental activities. Backed by several initiatives by the government and private enterprises there has been a cascading effect in several spheres of the Indian economy. The scale of developmental projects today, demands team work and expertise from various fields. Architects, planners, urban designers and related professionals are compelled to acknowledge the need to think about not only of quality in services but also about improving the decision making process to bring about improvement within the organisation of their professional offices. The scope of the Architectural Profession in India today, is widening rapidly and is spreading swiftly across ever expanding limits of time and space beyond the constraints of social, cultural and language differences. While on one hand the profession is exploring the numerous opportunities available, the education sector on the other hand is gearing up to develop capacity and prepare the young professionals to improve planning operations and ultimately performance so as to rise to the challenges of the coming century.

The tradition of architecture in India traces back to the Vedic period. The profession and education of Architecture enjoyed a natural autonomy for thousands of years. Architects enjoyed esteem in the society as humanists, scholars, mathematicians, artists, technocrats, designers and master skills persons all blended into one. Architecture is an independent discipline in its own right and existence and draws its inputs from areas of humanities, Fine Arts and technologies transformed into a holistic habitat design discipline. The unnatural grafting of architecture with engineering institutions in India has immensely curbed and harmed the education and the profession of Architecture resulting in inhuman, inefficient and ineffective rural and urban living environments.

This paper examines the initiatives that have been taken in various states of India to give freedom to Institutions to develop academically independent programs in Architecture and allied fields such as environmental planning, design and technologies of architecture and management aimed towards the betterment of human settlements. It reviews the efforts specifically in the state of Maharashtra to improve the quality and standards of higher and professional education and suggests measures to raise the capabilities of students passing out of institutions of architecture education by being environmentally sensitive yet futuristic, research-oriented, and competitive.