Presidency College has finally got the official stamp to start functioning as a unitary university.

The gazette notification announcing the upgrade of the landmark College Street institution into Presidency University reached the higher education department on Friday morning.

The notification states that the government will have to appoint the vice-chancellor of the new university by October 7.

“We hope to complete the process of selecting the first vice-chancellor of Presidency University before the deadline,” said higher education minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhury.

After the vice-chancellor is selected, the government will announce a date from when the college will start functioning as a university.

According to the rulebook, the government will have to set up a search committee which will prepare a panel of three suitable candidates for the post. The panel will be sent to the governor, also chancellor of the university, who will select the vice-chancellor.

Ray Chaudhury said work on the setting up of the search committee would start next week. Officials said the three members of the search committee would be chosen from among “prominent” academicians.

“The composition of the search committee will indicate whether the CPM wants to appoint one of its sympathisers to the top post of the university,” said a Presidency alumnus. “The freedom the Presidency University Act promises will remain a dream if it is a political appointee rather an academician of repute.”