St Xavier’s College (Autonomous) will admit students from other colleges in the final year of its four-year undergraduate programme to pursue research with honours through admission tests if seats are vacant.
The four-year undergraduate programme launched under the National Education Policy (NEP) allows a student to exit with honours from a college after three years and take admission to another college to pursue research with honours in the fourth year.
“Those students will have to write an admission test based on which they will be admitted to the fourth year. We have to assess whether a student seeking admission has the aptitude to pursue honours with research at St Xavier’s,” principal Father Dominic Savio said on Friday.
At Xavier’s, students are admitted to the undergraduate programmes based on their Plus-II board marks.
“In-house students (of St Xavier’s) will be promoted to the fourth year based on their CGPA scores till the sixth semester,” said Father Dominic Savio.
The principal outlined the admission mechanism at a time when students enrolled in the four-year undergraduate programme in 2023 are going to graduate at the end of the third year (sixth semester) in July.
Under the NEP, those who will complete the fourth year at the undergraduate level
will graduate with honours and research.
Convocation
The Jesuit institution had its 19th convocation on Friday.
The principal said in his convocation address that the college aimed to emerge as a research centre and collaborate with industry to design a curriculum that would make students employable.
“We have plans to offer a PhD in AI,” Father Savio said.
The principal said that a student from another college, having graduated with honours, can get admitted to the fourth year at St Xavier’s if seats are available.
“Some students pursuing undergraduate studies at St Xavier’s are likely to exit at the end of the third year. In that scenario, seats in the fourth year will be open for students from other colleges. But they have to write the admission test to prove that they have the necessary acumen,” the principal told Metro.
At Friday’s convocation, 14 PhD holders and 2,465 undergraduate and postgraduate students got their degrees.
Former ISI director Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay received the Nihil Ultra award.
In his address, Calcutta University vice-chancellor Ashutosh Ghosh lauded St Xavier’s for using its autonomy “wisely as a tool to excel further”.
AI courses
Father Savio said several courses on AI have been introduced at different levels,
even for students pursuing humanities.
Last week, he announced plans to start a master’s in AI in two years.
“Keeping in mind the importance of the growing demand for AI, the college has introduced a minor course in artificial intelligence. AI for natural science has also been introduced. In addition, a course titled Gen AI for Non-Coders is being offered,” Father Savio said.