St. Xavier's to hold admission test in China

In view of the surge in admission applications from China in the past three years, the city-based St. Xavier's College has decided to conduct admission tests for applicants from China at Beijing from this year – a first-of-its-kind initiative for the institution as well as for any other educational institution in West Bengal.

The admission tests will be conducted in English to assess the proficiency of Chinese applicants in the language besides their knowledge in the particular subject they have applied for.

Rise in applications

“In the past few years, there has been a considerable rise of applications received from students in China, Thailand and South Korea interested in studying at our college. With the number of Chinese applicants crossing 45 this year, we have decided to send one of our professors to Beijing where the admission tests will be held on June 8 and 9,” Principal J. Felix Raj said at a press conference here on Friday.

Pointing out that evaluation of the test papers and interview of short-listed candidates would be conducted in Beijing, he said the arrangement would save the Chinese applicants the trouble of travelling to the city to appear for the test.

There are 20 students from China in the college currently and most of them are enrolled in the commerce, business administration, computer science and mass communication streams.

Observing that students hailing from the East Asian countries face difficulty while attending classes or interacting with other students due to the language barrier, the college authorities have decided to make knowledge of English a yardstick for foreign students applying for a seat in the college.

A new course in Bengali (Honours) is being offered from the academic year 2012-13.