St Stephen's College violates the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUET) guidelines by releasing the prospectus announcing that students will be admitted to undergraduate courses based on the 85:15 weightage formula. Reacting to this decision, the Delhi University (DU) warned the college, on May 24, Tuesday stating it will declare all admissions as "null and void".
In a letter to the Principal of St Stephen's College John Varghese, the Registrar of DU, Dr Vikas Gupta, said, "Any admission done in violation of the admission norms and policies of the university shall not be recognised and will be treated as null and void for all purposes."
The college was ordered by the university to withdraw the prospectus containing such an "incongruent policy immediately from the website". Simultaneously, the college was directed to "issue a Public Notice stating clearly that the approved admission policies of the University shall be applicable for admissions into various courses to be offered by the St Stephens College for the UG Programme for the Session 2022-2023."
The prospectus for the undergraduate courses 2022-23 stated, "St Stephen's College will adopt the CUET as the eligibility criteria, with 85 per cent weightage for CUET and the college's interview for shortlisted candidates with a weightage of 15 per cent." Further, the letter read, "The University of Delhi shall not be responsible for any consequential impact on the life and career of the candidates admitted to Stephen's College in violation of the University's admission policy." DU advised the college "to take necessary steps in this regard immediately and inform the university, accordingly."
A quick flashback
The CUET was initiated by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for admissions to all central universities for the 2022-2023 academic year. This exam aims to provide a single platform by giving equal opportunity to all students to get admitted to a central university.
Claiming its minority institution feature, St Stephen's College has issued a prospectus stating that it will accord 85 per cent weightage to the CUET score and 15 per cent to physical interviews for all categories of candidates, a stand strongly opposed by DU, which wants reserved category students only to be interviewed.
Senior officials stated that on May 9, DU wrote to St Stephen's College asking it to conduct admissions to the unreserved seats solely on the basis of CUET scores, as stated in a report by PTI. In spite of this, the college posted on its website about the 85:15 admission criteria. "Will reserve the right to proceed with admissions in accordance with our own admission policy guaranteed as a minority institution," the college added.
