Jadavpur University has written to the state government, urging it to take steps to help the institution secure the status of an Institute of Eminence (IoE), for which the UGC had once shortlisted it.
In 2021, the Union government proposed that if the Bengal government contributed ₹250 crore, the education ministry would provide ₹750 crore and award the tag.
The then Mamata Banerjee government declined the proposal, alleging that the Union government had altered the conditions instead of granting the entire ₹1,000 crore it had earlier promised.
Referring to the 2021 proposal, vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee wrote to the state government last week, requesting that its share of the grant be allotted so JU could secure the status.
“Now that the scenario has changed, we have written to the state government so they can provide the funds,” Bhattacharjee told Metro.
Education department officials told the VC at a meeting on Wednesday — attended by the VCs of other state universities as well — that the JU’s letter had been forwarded to the finance department for consideration.
“If we get the funds, it will help the university overhaul its research infrastructure. The students will benefit immensely,” Bhattacharjee said.
JU was ranked seventh on a shortlist of 10 “public institutions” drawn up by an empowered expert committee of the UGC in July 2018 for the tag of eminence. The status would have brought a grant of ₹1,000 crore over five years.
However, JU missed out after the UGC selected three institutes — IISc Bangalore, IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi — from the list.
Sources in the state education department said that after the Union education ministry introduced a condition requiring the state government to contribute 25% of the grant, the Mamata government objected to it, and the tag eluded JU.
In October 2021, then JU VC Suranjan Das wrote to then education secretary Manish Jain: “I do appreciate that it is not feasible for the state government to provide a grant of ₹250 crore to a single university. Accordingly, Jadavpur University submitted to the MHRD a revised budget of ₹606 crore, 25% of which (₹152 crore) was proposed to be raised by the university itself.”
Around the same time, Jain requested the UGC to “keep Jadavpur University in the list of eminent institutions, as per the revised scheme” submitted by JU.
Bhattacharjee had told Metro in February 2025 that the university would write to the Union education ministry seeking the return of 75% of the ₹1 crore application fee it had paid to the UGC after the regulatory body denied JU the IoE status. But with the emergence of a so-called double-engine arrangement — with the same party ruling in Delhi and Calcutta — what was once considered a lost cause has now been revived.
Parthapratim Ray, general secretary of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association, said: “Since the BJP government has come to power, we hope it will accept the proposal of the Union government and provide 25% of the grant for JU.”