The CPM-controlled teachers’ union that played a role in Presidency College being denied full autonomy is now threatening to queer the pitch for the 192-year-old institution’s upgrade to university status.

“If the government is keen to grant higher status to Presidency, it should turn the college into an affiliating university instead of a unitary one. All 36 government colleges of Bengal should be affiliated to it,” Shyamal Basak, a Presidency teacher and the general secretary of the Association of Government College Teachers, told Metro on Wednesday.

The union’s condition for university status carries forward a tradition of pressure groups and parties repeatedly preventing Presidency from breaking the shackles of government control.

Several members of the college teachers’ association opposing the campaign for university status are professors at Presidency.

Some of these teachers have held meetings with the college administration over the past few days to air their reservations about university status for Presidency.

“Have Calcutta University’s standards deteriorated so much that Presidency needs to be distanced from it? What about the other good government colleges?” asked a teacher.

The group had earlier stalled the full-autonomy initiative on similar grounds.

“They are only worried about the Presidency staff ceasing to be members of the college teachers’ association once the institution is upgraded,” an official said.

According to sources, government colleges like Lady Brabourne, Bethune, Maulana Azad and Goenka College of Commerce were waiting for Presidency to get university status before making similar demands.

Last week, the governing body of Presidency unanimously passed a resolution supporting the proposal to upgrade the city’s oldest government-run college to a university. The higher education department has sought a detailed report from the college on the state of infrastructure, its academic programmes and faculty.