Passing the buck on to the respective boards for the staggering cut-off of 99 per cent for admissions this year, St Stephen’s College on Wednesday said that the boards should work on their marking indicators so that the scores are more realistic.Stating that the college finds itself in such a situation every year, college spokesperson Karen Gabriel said that due to the style of marking by CBSE and other boards, they have to hike their cut-offs. “We believe that the boards should work on their marking indicators so that the scores are more realistic,” he added.
On Tuesday, the college had announced its first cut-off list in which the requirement for English Honours was a staggering 99 per cent. “We have got 6,000 applications for English Honours, which has just 30 seats. So, the high cut-offs are not by choice,” Gabriel said.
She added that the cut-offs are decided after evaluating three parameters -- board marks, student-seat ratio and number of applications received. “Unfortunately, we are living in a society where students are evaluated by their marks. The State as well as the boards should work on the marking system as well as educational reforms to ensure students do not fall prey to such anomalies in the set up. We as a college cannot do much about it,” she added.
According to the list, the cut-off for English was 99 per cent in best-of-four subjects for Commerce students, while it was 97.75 per cent for Science and 97.5 per cent for Humanities students. For Economics, the cut-off is at 98.50 per cent for commerce students, 97.50 per cent for science and 97 per cent for humanities students. For History, BA Pass, Mathematics, Sanskrit and Philosophy, the cut-offs are 98, 96.50, 97.25, 75 and 96.75 per cent, respectively.last year, the cut-offs for English and Economics were the highest at 98 for commerce students, 97.25 for Science and 97 per cent for Humanities.St Stephen’s has received a record 32,100 applications for 400 seats, highest in the college’s history.
The college earlier used to enroll students on the basis of a personal interview and cut-offs announced after Class XII examinations. From this year, an aptitude test of 30-minute duration has been introduced.“The declaration of cut-offs is only the beginning of the admission process at the college. The list of candidates called for interview and aptitude test will be updated on the website in two days and the interviews will begin from June 22,” Gabriel had earlier said.The candidates meeting the cut-off criteria will now be called for aptitude test and interview starting June 22.
Stephen’s, being a minority institution, follows a schedule and procedure for admission which is different from that at other Delhi University colleges. While the varsity had decided to eliminate stream-wise cut offs and extra riders by colleges this year, Stephen’s has stuck to the previous pattern.There are separate cut-offs for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (non-Christian), Christian Scheduled Tribes, Church of North India (CNI), CNI Delhi Diocese, Other Christians, Christian Person with Disability, Person with Disability for some particular subjects, and for Urdu students. The college had also announced a marginal hike in tuition and hostel fees for the upcoming academic session.