Architecture education in India is in crisis with a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classes and widespread cheating by students, according to architects in the country.
A huge expansion of architecture courses over the last few years has led to overstretched and under-qualified staff teaching classes of up to eighty students, Dezeen has been told.
Students regularly cut corners by paying for others to write their theses, prepare their renderings and build their models. These services are openly advertised on social media.
In addition there are persistent rumours about architecture studios that exploit desperate students by making them pay for internships, which are a mandatory part of their education.
"It is a big crisis," said Sonali Rastogi, founder partner at Morphogenesis, a firm with offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi. "The lack of teachers is a crisis. The large number of colleges is a crisis." Increase in colleges offering courses
The number of Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) courses in India has grown rapidly in recent years. Architecture website ArchitectureLive says that 297 new architecture schools have opened in the country in the last 10 years, while the number of students graduating each year has tripled.
According to regulatory body the Council of Architecture (CoA), there are now "about 558 institutions" offering degree courses.
"The rise has been very sudden," said Rastogi, who said some schools have class...