Calcutta, Sept. 7: The race for the centre of excellence tag involving six undergraduate colleges under Calcutta University is in its last leg.

On September 15, the University Grants Commission (UGC) will meet in Delhi and, in all probability, make the final round of selection of the colleges fit to be upgraded to centres of excellence.

St Xavier’s, Loreto, Scottish Church, Belur Vidya Mandir, Lady Brabourne and Serampore Girls College are the six from CU vying for the honours.

Presidency College happens to be the first from Bengal to be picked for the enhanced status last year when the UGC made the first phase of selections.

“Our standing committee will meet on September 15 to determine which of the short-listed colleges in Bengal are suitable to get the centre of excellence status,” a senior UGC official said from Delhi today.

The UGC conveyed its decision to hold the mid-September meeting to the state higher education department on Wednesday.

Once the final verdict on the short-listed colleges is out, five of them will be eligible for an additional grant of Rs 60 lakh each. Lady Brabourne is likely to get not more than Rs 35 lakh because it does not have a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) certificate.

According to the conditions laid down by the UGC, institutions that are non-autonomous and accredited with the NAAC are entitled to get as much as Rs 60 lakh after earning the centre of excellence tag.

Presidency, which like Lady Brabourne is controlled directly by the state government, has also been granted Rs 35 lakh. No undergraduate college in the state enjoys full autonomy.

In fact, all 17 colleges run directly by the state are yet to get the NAAC accreditation as the government is still not keen on getting its institutions scanned by a central agency like the NAAC.

Sources in the government said the UGC had in its preliminary reports expressed satisfaction with the performance of all six colleges that Calcutta University had recommended for the centre of excellence status.

The UGC had told the government it could recommend up to 10 colleges from across the state.

The UGC criteria that the colleges need to fulfil to seek the status include quality infrastructure, facilities to offer courses in emerging areas, student-teacher ratio on a par with set standards, a wide collection of books in libraries and laboratories equipped with the latest equipment.