That choosing a career for HSC students is a confusing time will no longer be an excuse available to architecture aspirants. From 2018, students wishing to pursue a Bachelors in Architecture (B Arch) will need to think twice before choosing the Arts or Commerce stream in HSC. According to a new regulation issued by the Council of Architecture (COA), only students with a science background will be eligible for admission to architecture courses in the state. Even if an Arts or Commerce student has taken mathematics as an HSC subject, s/he will be ruled out.

The new regulation is in fact, a return to old norms. Prior to 2008, the COA had maintained that the eligibility for B Arch would be an HSC degree in science. In 2008, the COA opened up eligibility to other streams, as long as students had taken Math as a subject. Now, the COA has suddenly realised the importance of the PCM combination (Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics).