NEW DELHI: The Delhi University (DU) on Monday asked St Stephen’s College to align its admission procedure with the varsity’s policy, noting that the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) will provide a level playing field to all applicants.
The university and the college are at loggerheads over the admission process. The college had earlier said it will accord 85 per cent weightage to the CUET score and 15 per cent to physical interviews for all categories of candidates.
With the college refusing to do away with the interview process, the varsity said it is “firm” on its decision to declare “null and void” all admissions made by the college in violation of the CUET guidelines. In a letter to St Stephen’s principal John Varghese on Monday, DU Registrar Vikas Gupta argued that adding a score based on an interview to the score which has already been obtained through a standardized statistically robust procedure — CUET-UG — will “eventually lead to discrimination.”
He also said that prolonging the discussion will be ‘antithetic to the smooth and timely conduct of admissions.” Gupta contended that CUET will provide a level playing field to all applicants and merit should be prepared for all applicants based on CUET which is “standardized and fair.”
“Adding a score based on an interview to the score which has already been obtained through CUET-UG would introduce subjectivity in the admission process and eventually lead to discrimination, which is not desirable,” the registrar’s letter said.
“It is expected that the college aligns its admission procedure with the admission policy of the University thus respecting the decision of the larger bench of the Supreme Court,” the letter added. It said prolonging the discussion will also unnecessarily lead to confusion and inconvenience to the candidates seeking admission.