The governing body at St. Stephen’s College has decided to hold an aptitude test for all its 10 undergraduate courses, this year. In a recent move, it has also decided to increase the merit differential percentage to 25%, for those aspirants who come under the Church of North India (CNI) and the Church of North India, Delhi (CNI-D). Not only this, but the college has also decided to increase its fees by 6.7%.
The decisions were taken at the governing body meeting held on March 14. The staff association, however, had called a meeting on April 3 to discuss the issues. They claimed that the decisions were taken without consulting them. It is rather a surprise that the college didn’t take into account the views of staff counsel to implement its decisions.
In 2015, former St. Stephen’s principal, Valson Thampu had introduced the aptitude test along with an interview for admissions. Under this concept, 15 marks were divided between the aptitude test and the interview, while the rest were based on the candidate’s class XII marks. However, just last year, aptitude tests for two BSc (Honours) courses, which included Physics and Chemistry, were not held.
In order to give a fair chance to all the students, who are otherwise left out during the interview sessions for admissions into St. Stephen’s College, the college had to introduce the aptitude tests before the interviews. So far, the college had been giving admissions to the students on the basis of their school marks and a personal interview. But after that, the students had to appear in the aptitude tests before sitting for an interview.
Every year, Delhi University notifies the admission guidelines for its colleges. But minority institutions, such as St. Stephen’s and Jesus Mary College, have their separate admission rules.
On this issue of entry tests and the fee hike, Campus Watch tried to have a word with the Student Union at St. Stephen’s College. But they do not have an official response, stating the reason that they can’t comment on this issue without the permission of the principal.
“This step to bring back entry tests is taken wholly by the governing body of the college even without the consent of the staff council. But, the increase in fees is not justified because other colleges have the same funding as ours, but they didn’t increase their fees. The college needs to justify as to why they are increasing the fees,” said a student of St. Stephen’s College, choosing to remain anonymous.