Patna, Nov. 8: The fate of architecture students of National Institute of Technology (NIT), who went on a 20-day-long strike demanding re-registration of their department, is in limbo.

For, the Council of Architecture is yet to send its report to the NIT administration even though a month has passed since a team from the council visited the tech cradle to inspect it.

The architecture students had staged a dharna and went on strike in September to protest against the alleged lackadaisical approach of the Council of Architecture and NIT administration to get the department re-registered.

On October 8, a team from the council visited the institute. After inspection, the team members assured the NIT administration that they would send their report within a month. But the report is yet to arrive.

On the other hand, the NIT administration has announced the date for mid-term and end-term examinations of the architecture students. The mid-term examination would be held from November 29, while the end-term examination is in January next year. The mid-term examination is only for those architecture students, who could not take the exams earlier because of strike.

If the end-term examinations of the architecture students are conducted in January, they will be one month behind other departments who have their exams in December.

A final-year architecture student, on condition of anonymity, said: “The end-term examination of other branch students are scheduled for December, while architecture students will have to take the exam in January. As a result, our final semester will start a month late.”

NIT students are also uncertain whether they will get the registration from the Council of Architecture.

Mukesh Kumar, a student leader at NIT, said: “The (NIT) administration should take initiatives so that the Council of Architecture (COA) gives registration to the department.”

The architecture course, which was registered since 1979, was declared un-registered in 2005.

A source said that since then neither the institute nor the human resource development department has taken initiative for the re-registration of the course.

Because of the lack of registration, two batches of architecture students who have passed out of the institute are facing problems in getting placed.

“At present, the 2011 batch still remains unregistered, though all criteria prescribed by the COA for getting registration have been fulfilled,” said a source.

He added: “Students join NIT after cracking all-India engineering or architecture entrance examination conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education. They were not informed by the institute authorities about the de-recognition of the department.”

NIT officials were unavailable for comment.