With the increasing focus and the growing discussions on the issue of unpaid internships in the architecture profession in India, ArchitectureLive! is currently in the process of connecting with some past interns of Mathew and Ghosh Architects for their response with regards to the recently published article on Mathew and Ghosh Architects (MGA). Meanwhile, some of the students who had previously applied for an internship at MGA, came forward to share their experiences with us.
Amongst these students is Garima Patel, an architect, and CEPT University alumni, who had applied for an internship in 2019 at MGA. While confirming the unpaid internship provided by MGA, she mentioned,
I knew it had an unpaid internship as one of my seniors had done it in 2017. I was fine with it as the firm had good work and I wanted to learn with them. Within 15 mins of sending my application, they replied with an acceptance letter and their ‘certificate program’ for which I had to pay INR 55,000 to do an internship.
According to her, the offer letter sent via e-mail, besides including the perks of the said internship, mentioned the necessary conditions that needed to be fulfilled as well,
“The perks included attending ‘talks’ of several distinguished architects who are regular visitors and visiting faculties at CEPT! There was also the denial of a certificate if attendance was below 75%. They had clearly mentioned that there would be no stipend and if I wanted to do an internship taking the certificate course was mandatory.”
Besides debunking the claims made by the design practice regarding their L-studio and internship programs, Garima voices her concern,” Having this practice is already a wrong thing. Worse is when they lie and say that they don’t take ownership.”
While we are in the process of verifying the claims and the details of other students, we applaud those coming forward to share their experiences and, in turn, encourage others to do the same.
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