Registrations at St Stephen’s to be open from July 7

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We won’t be able to say anything till we see the marks. Cut-offs are determined on marks that come in and till students submit those marks in their final application, it will be difficult to comment. MAHESH GOPALAN, admission tutor

nNEWDELHI: Releasing its prospectus for admissions to the upcoming academic session, Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College (SSC) on Sunday said it would shift to online interviews, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, and do away with the written test section of the entrance process.

Candidates will be allowed to register for admission between July 7 and 18, and will first have to register on the Delhi University (DU) website and enter the form number on the college’s portal.

In its prospectus, uploaded on its website on Sunday morning, the college said, “Owing to the ongoing pandemic situation, interviews will be conducted online.”

HT had on July 1 reported that the college was considering these changes.

A minority institute, SSC reserves 50% of its seats for Christian students and follows a separate admission process from DU. Hence, applicants to SSC have to appear for written tests and interviews, which comprise of 15% weightage of marks. The remaining 85% is based on the candidate’s performance in the class 12 board exams.

Since there will be no written tests this year, only interviews will be considered for the 15% weightage.

According to the college’s prospectus, the interview will have three components this time — academic, co-curricular, and general awareness and sense of values. Applicants appearing in online interviews will have to keep several documents handy including print outs of the interview call letter, date of birth certificate and mark sheet of the qualifying exams.

Like Delhi University, the college will also not conduct sports trials this year due to the pandemic. Admissions to the sports category will instead be based on academic performance, interviews with sports-related questions, and certificates of applicants who played sports at international, national, or state level or have secured the first or second place in zonal school games.

When asked if the cancellation of pending Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) exams due to the pandemic and subsequent moderation of marks would impact the cut-offs, Mahesh Gopalan, admission tutor at the college, said it was too early to tell. “We won’t be able to say anything till we see the marks. Cut-offs are determined on marks that come in and till students don’t submit those marks in their final application, it will be difficult to say anything about it.”

The college, however, is yet to release the schedule or decide the modalities of the interviews. “The policy framework of this year’s admissions has come out through the prospectus. The exact details are yet to be worked out through internal consultations within the college. Our task is to evolve different means of addressing the academic, technological, practical and ethical concerns in organising online interviews to make it as fair, inclusive and effective as possible,” said NP Ashley, assistant professor of English and a governing body member of the college.