Four girls? colleges under Calcutta University on Monday submitted proposals to the University Grants Commission (UGC), expressing their willingness to come together to form ?cluster colleges?.

Basanti Devi College, South Calcutta Girls? College, Muralidhar Girls? College and Vivekananda Women?s College submitted their proposals at a meeting with a team of UGC officials. The team is on a visit to the city to hold discussions with the university on framing guidelines to implement the cluster colleges scheme.

The UGC scheme aims at introducing a system in which a group of colleges can share their infrastructure and facilities to support various academic programmes.

?We appreciate the proposals of the colleges to set up a group comprising four all-women?s institutions. We are exploring the possibility,? said Suranjan Das, pro vice-chancellor (academic), Calcutta University, after the meeting with the UGC officials.

If the UGC allows the colleges to form a cluster, students of these institutions will be able to avail of facilities, like libraries and laboratories, in each of the four colleges.

According to the UGC scheme, the colleges which are selected for setting up clusters will be granted Rs 50 lakh for developing their existing infrastructure.

?We (the university) have accepted in principle the UGC scheme and have given a nod to our affiliate colleges to submit their proposals. But we will have to place the matter in our syndicate body meeting before the offers are accepted,? pro vice-chancellor Das said.

?We will be in a position to give our final approval only after the members of the syndicate ? which is our highest policy-making body ? approve of the scheme unanimously,? he added.

As the concept is new, the university may even have to amend its laws concerning running of undergraduate colleges, sources said.

Six co-educational colleges had earlier submitted their proposals to the UGC, seeking to form a cluster. They are Acharya Prafulla Chandra College, Rashtraguru Surendranath College, Habra Sree Chaitanya College, Birati College, Sarojini Naidu College and BKC College.

The UGC has already conducted the first round of inspections at these colleges. The inspections ended last month.

Sources said the UGC had invited some of the city?s well-known colleges, including St Xavier?s and Scottish Church, to Monday?s meeting, to seek their opinion about the cluster scheme.