Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s College appoints first woman principal

Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s College is set to get its first woman principal. Professor Susan Elias will take charge as the principal on June 1.

In a notice issued by the chairman of the college, Reverend Paul Swarup, said, “The supreme council of the college is pleased to announce that Professor Susan Elias will take charge as the 15th principal of the college and as its first lady principal.” DU's St. Stephen’s College was set up in 1881.

In December, the religious minority college had invited proposals from “agencies of international repute” to identify candidates for its top leadership position.

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Elias succeeds John Varghese who served as the principal for two terms. His tenure was marked with constant rift between the university and the teachers. Only on Monday, teachers of the physics department of the college moved the Delhi High Court and secured a stay against the new appointments made by the principal.

Computer science engineer

As per her LinkedIn profile, Elias is an engineer by training.

She has a BTech in computer science engineering from Madras University and a masters and PhD from in multimedia technology from Anna University. She was also a post-doctoral fellow at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Her professional journey is known to have started as a lecturer at Dr MGR Engineering College, Chennai.

For 19 years she worked as professor and HOD at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering. From here, she moved to Vellore Institute of Technology where she worked over the next eight years.

She has also served as research director at Hindustan University. Her latest work profile was as the pro-vice chancellor at Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh where she joined in January 2026.