Changed norms will make it tougher for students aspiring to take admission in the five-year Bachelor of Architecture from 2019. With the Council of Architecture announcing that only class 12 Science students will be able to apply, commerce and diploma students stand to lose. 

The CoA has made it mandatory for individual marks of all three crucial class 12 science subjects - Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics - to be counted for admission to the course. This means, class 12 commerce students who had an opportunity to study architecture won't be able to apply now. The changed norms also bring sad news for diploma students. Till last year, CoA allowed 10+3 (diploma students) for the degree programme in architecture after they cleared NATA, but from 2019, 10+2 science will be mandatory. 

Earlier, only 50 per cent aggregate marks in 10+3 level was considered apart from NATA score, while now it is compulsory for the candidate to have cleared 50 per cent marks individually in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics. Though the claim is that stringent norms are made to ensure that only quality students make it to the five-year undergraduate course, there are those who believe that the norms will only leave out talented students because they did not study in science stream. Dev Shah, an aspirant and class 12 student of Nirman School, Panchvati, believes that there are students in commerce stream who are good in drawing but won't stand a chance as they did not study in science stream in class 12. "This is not good. Also, I believe giving weightage to board exam is good, but making 50 per cent marks in each of the three subjects is a bit harsh. This will only add to student's stress," Dev said. 

Experts feel that the new rule may dim possibility of many students who may not have 50 marks in each of the three subjects but may have overall 50 per cent marks. 

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