Best Urban Colleges in India - Courses, Fees, Admissions 2026

DOMS IIT Roorkee offers tuition fee waiver to students pursuing a course from the institute. Below is the criteria to avail the fee waiver:

Full Tuition Fee Waiver– It is offered to the most economically backward students having a family income of less than INR 1 LPA during the previous financial year or current assessment year.

2/3 Tuition Fee Waiver– It is available to economically backward students having a family income in the range of INR 1 LPA to INR 5 LPA during the previous financial year or current assessment year

National Institute of Technology, Calicut, also known as NIT Calicut, is one of the oldest NITs in India and has been ranked 2 under the 'Architecture and Planning' category and 21 under the 'Engineering' category by NIRF 2025. The college offers a wide range of programmes to students, mainly in the Engineering and Technology fields. Further, the college has a decent connection with top-notch companies such as Accenture, ADP, Amazon, Amdocs, Baja Auto, American Express, etc. 

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur is a good college. It is ranked 4 by NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) 2024 under the Architecture category. To get admission to this excellent college, the candidates must have a valid score in any of the accepted entrance exams. For getting a valid score, the candidates must have a sound knowledge of the entrance exams syllabus like the MAT syllabus, CAT syllabus, CAT syllabus, CMAT syllabus, and JEE Main syllabus. Getting to know about the syllabus is the first step in prior preparation for the entrance test. Seats are limited so apply early for admission to various courses at IIEST Shibpur.

The seat deposit is also known as blocking fee or admission fee and is the fee amount paid after the admission offer is received to confirm one's seat and desire to study at the university and is generally refundable though there is a dead-line associated with the refund and deductions are made depending on it.

The eligibility criteria for CEPT University differs as per the course selected by the candidates. The course-wise admission eligibility criteria has been provided in the table below.

CEPT University Course Name	Admission Process
Bachelor of Interior Design	NATA & Qualifying exam scores
Bachelor of Urban Design	CEPT Entrance Exam
Bachelor of Construction Technology	CEPT Entrance Exam & Qualifying exam scores
Bachelor of Design	UCEED scores
Bachelor of Architecture	NATA & Qualifying exam scores
MArch in Architectural Design	Qualifying exam scores, Aptitude test Portfolio and Personal interview
MArch/ MA in Conservation and Regeneration	Qualifying exam scores, Portfolio and Personal interview
MArch/ MA in Architectural History and Theory	Qualifying exam scores, Portfolio and Personal interview
Master of Landscape Architecture	CEPT Entrance Exam, Portfolio and Personal interview
Master of Urban Planning	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Urban Transport Systems	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Urban Infrastructure	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Urban Housing	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Urban Design	Portfolio and Personal interview
Master of Urban Management	CEPT Entrance Exam and Personal interview
Master of Technology in Construction Engineering & Management	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Technology in Structural Engineering Design	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Technology in Geomatics	CEPT Entrance Exam
Master of Technology in Building Energy Performance	CEPT Entrance Exam

NIT Rourkela offers courses in UG, PG and part-level. The Institute offers admission based on valid scores of accepted entrance exams such as JEE Main/ GATE/ IIT JAM or other equivalent. Candidates are required to qualify for the JoSAA counselling and seek final admission based on the qualification of all the selection rounds. 

During 2023 placements, 74 UG and 157 PG students were placed. The highest placement rate was recorded for PG (2-year) courses. Earlier, 82 UG and 145 PG students were placed during 2022 placements. The table below represents the course-wise total strength and number of students placed during SPA Delhi placements from 2021 to 2023:

Particulars	BArch Placement Statistics (2021)	BArch Placement Statistics (2022)	BArch Placement Statistics (2023)
Total students	81	84	87
Students placed	33	65	67
Particulars	BPlan Placement Statistics (2021)	BPlan Placement Statistics (2022)	BPlan Placement Statistics (2023)
Total students	20	32	20
Students placed	11	17	7
Particulars	PG (2-year) Placement Statistics (2021)	PG (2-year) Placement Statistics (2022)	PG (2-year) Placement Statistics (2023)
Total students	165	188	184
Students placed	73	145	157

NOTE: The above statistics are fetched from the NIRF report 2024.

Yes, you can get VNIT Nagpur with a cutoff rank of 40,000 if you belong to the General AI category. This category had an overall cutoff range between 617 and 52313

Students can also avail admission if they belong to the General HS quota, as the VNIT Nagpur JEE Main cutoff 2025 varied from 398 to 53434.

The cutoff was also released for other categories in both the quotas, but they will differ from each other.

SPA Bhopal - School of Planning and Architecture has been rated 4.3 on Infrastructure parameter. SPA Bhopal - School of Planning and Architecture provide good facilities all around the campus such as Boys Hostel, Girls Hostel, Hospital / Medical Facilities, Hostel, Labs, Library. SPA Bhopal - School of Planning and Architecture has also been rated 4.3 for Campuslife.

Yes, MNIT Jaipur is a good college for doing the BArch course. The college has also been ranked 12 by NIRF 2025 in the Architecture & Planning category. After doing BArch from MNIT Jaipur, students can become urban planner, interior designer or even a project manager.

National Institute of Technology Patna is the 18th NIT created by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. BTech is the flagship programme offered at this institute, which has been ranked 53 under the 'Engineering' category in the NIRF Ranking 2025. The overall the highest package recorded during NIT Patna placements 2025 was INR 41.37 LPA. 

College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET) is a government institute. It was established in 1939 by Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the Maharaja of Travancore. CET is an engineering college in the Indian state of Kerala, situated in Thiruvananthapuram

The college is also an approved Minor Centre under AICTE QIP (Quality Improvement Programme) providing opportunities to faculty members of the degree-level engineering institutions to improve their qualification by offering admissions to Master's and PhD degree Programme.

MANIT Bhopal offers PhD, postgraduate, and undergraduate courses to students. These courses are provided across the MBA, Architecture,  Mathematics,  MBA, Science,  and various other streams. At the UG level, the college offers four-year BTech courses in Electrical, Civil, Mechanical, Electronics & Communication, Computer Science, Chemical, Material & Metallurgical Engineering,  and others. The college also provides a five-year B.Arch and a Dual degree five-year programme in Mathematics and Data Science courses to students. At the PG level, the college offers MTech, MPlan, MCA,  MBA, and MA courses to students. There are PhD programmes also available in the college.

The ICFAI University, Sikkim does not have a specific ranking among the universities. The university has some achievements and recognition in various fields such as Hotel Management, Law & Commerce, Finance & Marketing, HR, Operations Management, and IT. The university also offers placement facilities to its students. Companies such as Axis Bank, Hyatt Regency Kolkata, Thomson Digital, Concentrix, etc. participate in The ICFAI University placements regularly. According to the NIRF report 2023, the median package offered to MBA and LLB students during ICFAI University Sikkim placements 2022 was INR 4 and INR 3.5 LPA, respectively.

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra is a private university that is recognised by UGC and gives good education to the students. Below given are the reasons to choose the university:

• Good Ranking: The university is ranked 22nd and 51st under the 'Engineering' and 'Architecture & Planning' categories of NIRF 2025. 
• Placement Opportunities: Students at the Birla Institute of Technology Ranchi get placements in Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Tata Power, TCE, TCS, etc.

The highest package offered at Manipal School of Architecture and Planning (MSAP) in 2022 was INR 12 LPA. This was offered to a B.Des student by Amazon. MSAP claims that over 200 firms across India and abroad recruit UG and PG students every year, both on-campus and off-campus. Some of the notable recruiters include Flipkart, Myntra, Urban Ladder, Pepperfry, CnT Architects, RSP Design Consultants, Gensler, Hafeez Contractor, Morphogenesis, etc.

The overall average package recorded during NIT Raipur placements 2025 was INR 11.1 LPA. In 2024 and 2023, the average package was 10.8 LPA and 13.8 LPA.

Yes, GGSIPU is a good university. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) is the 1st university which was established in the year 1998 by Govt. of NCT of Delhi under the provisions of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Act, 1998 read with its Amendment in 1999 The University is recognised by University Grants Commission (UGC), India under section 12B of UGC Act. The university is good on placements, scholarships, student's rating. 

The institute has been offering good placements to graduating students. See the table to know more about Chitkara School of Planning and Architecture, Chitkara University placements: 

Particulars	Placement Statistics (2025)
the highest Package	INR 40 LPA
Average Package	INR 8.5 LPA
Placement Rate	90%

The placement details are taken from the Shiksha's review section. 

The Amity University Noida is a good choice for students as it has been accredited grade A by NAAC. Good placements are offered here with the highest package being INR 61.75 LPA during 2023.