Calcutta, July 3: The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government is considering a proposal to give deemed university status to Presidency College.

A proposal to declare Presidency an “autonomous” institution is already under consideration of a committee set up by the government specifically for the purpose.

“We are also considering the proposal to grant the status of a deemed university to Presidency,” Sudarshan Roy Choudhury, the higher education minister, told the Assembly today.

In February, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had assured the Assembly that he would ensure autonomy for Presidency, his alma mater.

The CPM-controlled government college teachers’ association, however, had submitted a proposal to the government urging it to grant deemed university status to the 189-year-old college, not autonomy.

Presidency is now an affiliate of Calcutta University and fully under the state government’s control.

Autonomy would have ensured the college academic, administrative and financial freedom from the government. It could then fix its own curricula and appoint its teachers and officials. The degree conferred on students would have been a joint one with Calcutta University.

With deemed university status, the college will be able to confer its own degree but would have to depend entirely on the government for funds and certain policy decisions.

The higher education minister also said today that Presidency would have to fulfil certain parameters prescribed by the University Grants Commission to be recognised as a deemed university.

It is apparent that the party and the chief minister have different opinions about how to upgrade Presidency. Bhattacharjee had earlier expressed displeasure over Alimuddin Street’s interference in education and insisted that he would personally see to it that Presidency gained total freedom from government control.

St Xavier’s College is now the only institution in the state that enjoys the status.