With Delhi University set to admit students based on the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) from the coming academic session, authorities said they received a request from St Stephen’s College to continue the practice of holding interviews for UG admissions to all seats. Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh said DU’s decision in this regard was “in the process of being communicated” to the college. DU’s Academic Council (AC) on March 22 had approved the undergraduate admissions for the academic session 2022-23 to be based solely on the CUET. The minutes of the Standing Committee meeting dated March 17, which were approved, said, “It was decided that admissions to all minority colleges (including St Stephen’s College and Jesus and Mary College) affiliated with the Delhi University will be only done through CUET. During centralised counselling, separate merit lists will be generated for unreserved and minority candidates as per the reservation policy.” While DU undergraduate admissions are based on cut-offs, St Stephen’s College conducts admissions differently. The college releases cut-offs separate from the overall DU cut-off which has 85% weightage, and the remaining 15% weightage is given to online interviews. Earlier, the 15% weightage was split between the written test and interviews. However, in 2020, the written test was done away with. Being a minority college, it reserves 50% seats for Christians. “We had received a request from them that they want to conduct interviews on all seats. What we have approved is that the 50% seats which are not reserved for minorities should be filled through the CUET, and for the remaining seats, there can be a mix of CUET and interviews,” said Registrar Vikas Gupta. V-C Singh said the weightage for the remaining 50% seats reserved for Christian candidates would be 85% to the CUET score and 15% to interview. “We are in the process of communicating this to the college. It will be done soon,” he said. Principal John Varghese told PTI: “I have asked for clarity on the admission process through an email. We are fine with CUET because it’s either the board exam or the CUET scores. If the university has said it, we are okay with it.” He said it’s been a fortnight since he wrote to Singh and they are yet to hear from the varsity.
