The Besu campus. A Telegraph picture

Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) will press the Centre to come clean on the proposed upgrade of the Shibpur campus to the status of an institute of national importance.

Vice-chancellor N.R. Banerjea said a university delegation would raise the demand when it meets Union human resources development minister Arjun Singh in New Delhi on March 9. “We will ask the minister to clarify the government’s stand on the issue,” said Banerjea, who will be part of the delegation.

The vice-chancellor had sought the meeting with Singh after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wrote to the Prime Minister, calling for an upgrade in the status of Besu and Jadavpur University.

The meeting assumes significance as Parliament is in session. Sources said a “favourable announcement” in Parliament would go a long way in placating the university authorities, in protest mode on the issue for the past month.

Besu teachers’ association secretary Sujay Mukherjea said: “We want the government to implement the Anandakrishnan Committee report (which had identified seven institutes across the country for the upgrade). The change in status will result in an allocation of a recurring grant of Rs 50 crore for the university.”

He, however, acknowledged that such an announcement would involve a policy decision by the Centre on the upgrade of all seven institutes.

In a letter to higher education minister Sudarshan Roychoudhuri in December, minister Singh wrote: “A comprehensive view on the level of funding during the 11th Plan will be taken on the basis of availability of funds. Your commitments regarding admission procedures and governance structure have also been noted.”

The state government had recommended admissions through state JEE and an ISI model of governance. Mukherjea said: “The issues can be thrashed out by the Centre and the state. We do not want them to come in the way of the upgrade.”