New Delhi, Aug. 26: The Centre is considering amending a three-decade-old law governing every architect in India to clamp down on private architecture colleges that swindle students, officials have said.

These colleges conduct their own entrance test ignoring the mandatory National Aptitude Test in Architecture (Nata), which means their students’ degrees cannot be recognised after they graduate.

The Centre is planning to amend the Architects Act, 1972, to plug loopholes. Under the law, every architect needs to be registered with the Council of Architecture to practise in the country.

The council conducts the Nata, which for the past two years has been made mandatory for all students aspiring to study the five-year BArch course. Council guidelines say that degrees offered by colleges that admit students through tests other than Nata will not be recognised. But the law does not allow the council to act against such “fraud” colleges, sources said. “The proposed amendments will… enable it to act against fraud institutes,” a source said.