02. Setting The Scene “It is said that Architectural Education is somewhat like a black-box because students enter as laymen and exit as architects, without really knowing what happened inside.” 2 Personal Experience Family businesses hold a significant standing in the Indian economy. India ranks 3rd worldwide in terms of public-listed family businesses, after China and the USA, with 60% of them in their third generation.3 Having grown up in a similar environment, where our family business is manufacturing and distribution of industrial ceramics, I also had aspirations to contribute by pursuing engineering. However, as time passed, I discovered my passion for architecture and design, and with the support of open-minded family members, decided to pursue that instead. Good quality education in India is very expensive and not easily accessible in all parts of the country. I am grateful that my family could fund my expensive entrance exam (NATA) training classes – which seems to be the requirement to get good grades and secure admission into one of the best architectural institutions in the country. Being a topranked private institute, with exceptionally advanced infrastructure, the tuition for my undergraduate degree was exorbitant, and again, was sponsored by my family. The thing about these private institutions in India is that due to the income generated from high tuition fees, the concept of management quota, and fundraising abilities, they attract highly competent and experienced faculty that graduate from the best architectural institutions globally. More often than not, when one is part of such an institute, it is easy to become oblivious to the overall quality of education in other institutes in and outside the country.
Jadwiga Krupinska, What an Architecture Student Should Know (New York: Routledge, 2014) p.116. 2
‘The CS Family 1000 in 2018’, Credit Suisse, September 2018 <https://www. credit-suisse.com/about-us-news/en/articles/news-and-expertise/the-family-businesspremium-201809.html> [accessed 1 April 2020] 3
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