Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Technical University Faculty Of Architecture, Lucknow

The Faculty of Architecture at AKTU, Lucknow began in 1911 inside a government arts and crafts college, and the university that now awards its degrees only took it on for academic matters from the 2000-2001 session. Its own name for itself today is the Faculty of Architecture and Planning (FoAP), and it still teaches from the Tagore Marg site it held as the Government College of Architecture.

A first-year B.Arch student admitted through UPTAC in 2026 pays Rs 90,000 in college and university fees. In the NIRF 2025 architecture table the faculty placed 39th, with a research score of 4.87, the lowest of the 40 institutions listed.

FoAP is a constituent faculty of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU), Lucknow, on a campus of about 6 acres within walking distance of Hazratganj. Its account of itself starts in 1911 as part of the Government College of Arts & Crafts; in 1976 the architecture wing split away as the Government School of Architecture, and in 1980 it became the Government College of Architecture, Lucknow, a constituent college of Lucknow University, according to FoAP's About page. Until the 1999-2000 session it ran the five-year B.Arch as Lucknow University's Faculty of Architecture, and from 2000-2001 a government decision covering every technical institution in the state put it under the newly created U.P. Technical University, now AKTU.

FoAP's own documents also fill in a middle stage that the About page leaves out. The placement brochure for its 2023-25 planning batch dates autonomous status as Lucknow College of Architecture to 2006 and the move into the university as the Faculty of Architecture and Planning to 2009 (MURP placement brochure 2023-25). FoAP's 2026 admission notices still carry the line "Incorporating Former Lucknow College of Architecture" under the letterhead (B.Arch document list 2026-27).

The regulators each keep a different birth year on file. On the Council of Architecture (COA) register, FoAP's B.Arch carries code UP01 and a commencement year of 1980, the year of the GCA renaming (COA approved B.Arch institutions 2026). AICTE's 2025-26 approval letter records the year of establishment as 1994, classes the institution as a State Government University, and still names the society as Gautam Buddh Technical University, Lucknow, with the address given as formerly Lucknow College of Architecture and Govt. College of Architecture (AICTE extension of approval 2025-26).

The postal address is Tagore Marg, C.S.I.R. Colony, Mukarimnagar, Hasanganj, Lucknow 226007 (contact page). A similar name, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, belongs to Kerala's state technical university, which has no link with this faculty.

FoAP teaches one undergraduate degree and five master's programmes. The B.Arch and the three M.Arch streams sit on the COA register, while the two planning degrees appear on AICTE's approval letter. The placement cell and the library call the urban planning degree MURP, but it is not a sixth programme: the June 2026 entrance notice names exactly these five master's branches (PG written test notice).

The B.Arch fee drops after the first year. The structure FoAP issued for education loans, dated 24 July 2026, charges Rs 90,000 in the first year and Rs 85,000 in each of the next four, a five-year total of Rs 4,30,000, with hostel fees of Rs 27,000 in the first year and Rs 25,000 after that, Rs 1,27,000 in all (B.Arch fee structure for education loans). That loan document gives a Union Bank of India account for later-year payments, but FoAP's July 2026 notice to continuing students says fees go only through the institute ERP portal (registration and fee notice). The loan document adds that its figures can change on the direction of AKTU or the Uttar Pradesh government.

Master's fees include a deposit. The Rs 73,200 for M.Arch (General) carries caution money of Rs 5,000, and a hostel place costs Rs 27,000 with security money of Rs 2,000 (M.Arch fee notice). The planning and specialised architecture streams are billed Rs 76,000 with the same Rs 5,000 of caution money (M.Plan and M.Arch fee notice). Continuing students had until 05-08-2026 to pay, Rs 85,000 for B.Arch years II to V and Rs 71,000 for the second year of M.Plan (URP), with hostel at Rs 25,000 (registration and fee notice, July 2026).

Refunds of admission fees follow AKTU and institute rules, cover the principal amount only, and exclude transaction, convenience and GST charges (refund policy).

Two separate doors lead in. B.Arch seats are allotted by the university's state counselling, Uttar Pradesh Technical Admission Counselling (UPTAC), while FoAP selects its own master's students.

B.Arch Through UPTAC 2026

UPTAC ranks B.Arch applicants on NATA first and JEE (Main) second. The 2026 information brochure lists NATA-2025 or 2026 as the first exam priority and JEE (Main)-2026 as the second, for both the main and the special counselling (UPTAC information brochure 2026). To qualify, a Class 12 student needs 45% or more across three subjects taken together, namely Physics, Mathematics and a third drawn from a list that runs from Chemistry and Biology to Informatics; a 10+3 diploma holder needs Mathematics in the diploma and 45% overall. The registration fee for counselling is Rs. 1000.

Where a candidate went to school decides which rounds are open. The regular rounds are for students who passed the qualifying exam in Uttar Pradesh or whose father or mother holds U.P. domicile; students from other states with no U.P. domicile can compete only in the special round (UPTAC information brochure 2026). The same brochure fills every first-year seat at government institutions through counselling, so FoAP has no management quota, and the Kashmiri migrant and foreign national schemes do not extend to the B.Arch.

After allotment, FoAP's own notices take over. The 2026 batch reported physically from August 19 to 21, and classes began on August 31, 2026 (FoAP admission notices). The document list, dated July 28, 2026, asks for the original UPTAC-2026 final allotment letter and counselling fee receipt, a medical certificate on Form-9 of UPSEE, an OBC certificate issued on or after April 01, 2026, and a hostel affidavit on Rs. 50 stamp paper for anyone wanting a room (B.Arch document list 2026-27).

M.Arch and M.Plan Through FoAP's Own Selection

The master's route runs through the faculty's admission cell. The 2026-27 poster opens direct admission to GATE, PGETA and CUET-PG qualified candidates, charges INR 500 for the form, and asks for a B.Arch with at least 50% for the three M.Arch streams; the two M.Plan programmes also take B.Tech (Civil), B.Plan and M.A. graduates in Economics, Sociology or Geography at 50% (PG admission poster 2026-27).

GATE holders were taken first. A list dated June 08, 2026 named candidates selected on a valid GATE score and gave them until June 14 to complete admission (GATE selection list). The remaining seats went through a written test at 10.30 am and interviews from 2.00 pm on June 22, 2026, for which candidates brought a CV and a thesis or work portfolio (PG written test notice); selections on the combined merit followed the next day (PG selection list, June 23, 2026). The same poster also advertised a spot round with applications closing on 24 July 2026 (PG admission poster).

UPTAC has published FoAP's B.Arch ranks in two different formats for the last two cycles: a Round III extract on its Samarth portal for 2026, and a round-by-round NATA counselling report for 2025.

2026 Round III

For 2026, UPTAC's opening and closing rank tool returns six B.Arch rows for FoAP (institute code 051), all from Round III. The two rank columns are UPTAC merit positions; the two score columns carry UPTAC's own Min Score and Max Score labels, and UPTAC does not say what they measure.

Every NATA row closed ahead of every JEE row. The last open-category NATA seat went at UPTAC rank 58, while the first JEE Paper II row starts at 157 (UPTAC 2026 OR-CR details), which fits the brochure's rule that NATA holders are ranked before JEE candidates. On the JEE rows the score columns hold four- and five-digit whole numbers, so they cannot be read against the NATA rows' decimals.

The 2026 extract is partial. UPTAC posts no Round I or Round II rows for FoAP, and the OPGL, SCNO, STNO and STGL seats in the seat matrix, along with every PH, AF and FF sub-category, have no row at all.

2025 All Rounds

UPTAC's 2025 B.Arch (NATA) counselling report, linked from its OR-CR 2025 page, lists 18 FoAP rows across Rounds 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7. Each figure carries the exam it came from in brackets, exactly as reproduced below.

JEE main figures were already filling reserved and sub-category rows in Round 1 of 2025, and by Round 3 the open home-state row itself ran from 153 (NATA) to 57449 (JEE main). All India quota rows appear only in Rounds 6 and 7, and all four closing figures in those two rounds are JEE main numbers (UPTAC 2025 NATA OR-CR report, archived). The 2025 report and the 2026 portal label their figures differently, so a 2025 rank is not a like-for-like target for 2026.

Graduating B.Arch and master's classes are tracked year by year in the data FoAP sends to NIRF, and the table below is built from those forms.

The 2021-22 B.Arch batch was small, and the matching intake line shows only 40 students admitted in 2017-18 (NIRF 2025 data). Master's graduates have out-earned B.Arch graduates in every batch reported, and the gap held in 2024-25 at Rs 7,50,000 against Rs 4,50,000 (NIRF 2026 data).

The two returns disagree on one row. The 2025 filing gives the 2023-24 postgraduate batch as 30 graduates with 28 placed, while the 2026 filing gives 33 and 31 at the same median of Rs 6,91,000 (NIRF 2025 data, NIRF 2026 data).

The placement cell's site hosts student brochures for the B.Arch, MURP, and the environmental and interior design M.Arch streams, plus congratulation posters for placed MURP, interior design and environmental design students (FoAP placement cell). Those posters show each graduate's photograph, earlier degree and internships, but not who hired them or at what salary, and its Past Recruiters section is a strip of logos with no years or hiring numbers attached. The MURP brochure's student profiles show who the planning course draws: architects from Ansal Technical Campus, Integral University, Babu Banarasi Das University and Bundelkhand University, with internships at the Lucknow Development Authority and state town planning departments (MURP placement brochure 2023-25).

UPTAC's 2026 seat matrix for FoAP's B.Arch totals 100 net seats, with none under the tuition fee waiver scheme (UPTAC seat matrix 2026).

Uttar Pradesh's rules set vertical shares of 21% for SC, 02% for ST, 27% for OBC and 10% for EWS candidates from the state, and horizontal ceilings of 20% for women, 05% each for Divyangjan and defence families and 02% for dependants of freedom fighters. FoAP's matrix matches every share except the last: its freedom fighter column adds to three seats of the hundred (UPTAC information brochure 2026).

The B.Arch intake is not one number across FoAP's regulators and returns. UPTAC counsels 100, while COA's list for 2026-2027 approves 80, the same figure FoAP gave NIRF as sanctioned intake for each year from 2020-21 to 2024-25 (COA B.Arch register 2026, UPTAC seat matrix 2026). FoAP's 2025 NIRF return had instead listed 86 a year from 2019-20 to 2022-23 and 96 for 2023-24 (NIRF 2025 data), and the 2026 return shows 84 admitted in 2019-20 and 85 in 2020-21 (NIRF 2026 data). An applicant counting on a seat beyond the 80th should ask the admission cell how the extra places are treated.

FoAP entered NIRF's architecture and planning table for the first time in 2025, at 39th with 47.94, filed as the college-level entity IR-A-C-46873 (NIRF 2025 Architecture and Planning). The faculty's name is missing from all 30 rows of the 2023 table and all 40 of the 2024 table.

Research pulled the total down. The 4.87 is the lowest research score of all 40 ranked institutions, below Amity University (the West Bengal entry) at 5.39 and Anant National University at 6.63, though FoAP's graduation outcomes score of 77.64 was higher than that of 22 of the 38 institutions ranked above it (NIRF 2025 Architecture and Planning). Aligarh Muslim University, 26th, is the only other Uttar Pradesh name in the table.

Design commissions, rather than grants, now bring in FoAP's outside money. Its 2024-25 consultancy receipts of Rs 1,19,88,627 came from 126 projects for 55 clients, while sponsored research that year was a single Rs 11,23,881 project. The year before, sponsored research of Rs 68,66,082 from four projects had out-earned consultancy of Rs 51,08,044 from 32 (NIRF 2026 data). That return was filed under AKTU's university ID, IR-A-U-0549, rather than the college ID used in 2025. NIRF's rankings site still ends at the 2025 edition, so whether FoAP will next appear as a college or inside AKTU's university entry cannot yet be checked.

FoAP lists ten laboratories on its resources page: art, computer, GIS, environmental, photography, a recording studio, survey, material testing, virtual reality and a workshop (FoAP resources). FoAP's NIRF 2026 return picks the highest answer on both building questions for disabled students, lifts or ramps and adapted toilets, each in more than 80% of buildings (NIRF 2026 data), and the barrier-free page shows a campus entrance ramp and a lift with Braille signage (barrier-free environment).

FoAP's library catalogue runs on Koha, and the site gives Monday to Saturday hours of 12 P.M. to 7 P.M., access to ONOS, Scopus, Delnet and the National Digital Library, and thesis and dissertation lists for the B.Arch, M.Arch, MED, MURP and MID (FOA-AKTU library). Library purchases shrank by more than half in two years, from Rs 64,97,940 in 2022-23 to Rs 38,78,366 and then Rs 29,00,401 in 2024-25 (NIRF 2026 data).

Hostel

FoAP runs two hostels: Vishwakarma Boys' Hostel with 112 rooms and Vidushi Girls' Hostel with 72 (FoAP hostel page). The page's year-by-year room lists are currently blank, and its one visible allotment note says merit lists are drawn up separately for each B.Arch section.

A hostel place costs Rs 27,000 in the first year, including a Rs 2,000 security deposit, and Rs 25,000 in later years (B.Arch fee structure for education loans, M.Arch fee notice, registration and fee notice).

Prof. (Dr.) Vandana Sehgal is Dean and Principal, and Dr. Ritu Gulati is Professor and Head of Department (FoAP faculty list, Dean's message). On the faculty list, the word Contractual follows most of the Assistant Professor names.

FoAP's NIRF 2026 return shows how thin the permanent staff is. It lists 55 teaching entries, of which 13 are regular, 24 adhoc or contractual, 15 visiting and 3 other, and 12 entries hold a Ph.D (NIRF 2026 data). The count overstates headcount, because several people appear twice with different qualifications or joining dates, among them Dr Julia Simlai, Joydeep Dutta, Arun Srivastava and Kumar Vanshaj. Of the regular staff in that filing, Vandana Sehgal has the earliest joining date, 29-02-1996.

Most clients on the faculty's project lists are public bodies in Uttar Pradesh. Ongoing consultancy includes the Andaaz-e-Awadh heritage corridor for Lucknow Smart City Limited, facade improvements for the Panch Kosi and Chaudah Kosi routes for the Ayodhya Development Authority, and junction redesigns for the Lucknow Development Authority (ongoing projects). Research grants have come from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the Council of Science and Technology Uttar Pradesh and NRDC India, and a climate resilience project in Ayodhya ran with VITO NV of Belgium (research projects).

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