St Xavier’s University will allow undergraduate course aspirants who lack devices to write tests online to take the exams at computer labs on the campus, officials of the university said.

If an aspirant who has a smartphone or a laptop faces any connectivity problem, he or she can stay at a hostel on the New Town campus and use the university’s Wi-Fi and LAN connections to write the test.

Vice-chancellor Father Felix Raj said that while they had been forced to hold online tests because of the Covid situation, they were taking as many steps as possible to bridge the digital divide.

In the middle of June, St Xavier’s University had announced that it would admit students to its undergraduate programmes through online tests, marking a departure from the practice of selecting students based on their marks in the Class XII board exams, which could not be held this year because of the pandemic.

“The aspirants will be informed over email about the options we are offering to overcome the digital divide as far as possible,” Father Felix Raj said.

He said special arrangements would be made for the aspirants from far-off places, like north Bengal, who are handicaped by the digital divide.

“There are several schools and other institutions that are part of the Xaverian family. They (such students) can use the computer facilities there to write the tests…. They don’t have to come to our New Town campus,” said Father Felix Raj.

The admission tests will be held between July 10 and 12.