Jadavpur University will write to the Union education ministry to request a refund of 75% of the ₹1 crore application fee it submitted to the University Grants Commission (UGC), following the decision by the regulatory body to withhold the institute of eminence (IoE) status from the university, vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said.

Suranjan Das, the university’s past vice-chancellor, during whose administration the university sought the IoE tag with contributions from alumni last year, indicated that the regulatory body was mandated to refund 75% of the fee as per one of the application clauses.

The state-aided university, which was shortlisted for the status in 2018 but ultimately left out, was expected to receive ₹1,000 crore in grants under the scheme.

Speaking at a recent meeting with the Global Jadavpur University Alumni Foundation — a platform of California-based former students that had raised ₹1 crore to enable the application — Bhattacharjee said he would approach the ministry for a refund.

“We will write to the ministry soon. ₹75 lakh means a lot for a university that is facing a funds deficit,” the vice-chancellor told alumni during the campus meeting, which was organised to discuss how alumni support could be more structured.

Bhattacharjee later told Metro that since JU had been denied the status, the university would seek a refund as mandated by the application clause.

In March of last year, then-officiating VC Bhaskar Gupta had also spoken of plans to write to the UGC for a refund. However, his tenure ended soon after, and the university remained without a VC until Bhattacharjee assumed office in November, a JU official said.

Union junior education minister Sukanta Majumdar had earlier told the Rajya Sabha that chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s “apathy killed Jadavpur University’s IoE dream”.

However, many JU teachers blame the Centre, alleging a sudden change in stance.

JU had paid the application fee in 2017.

According to Das, JU was among eight public institutions shortlisted by the UGC’s empowered expert committee in July 2018 and was supposed to receive ₹1,000 crore over a period of five years.

However, in an August 6, 2019, letter to the chief secretary, the Union education ministry cited a ₹3,000-crore budget proposed by JU, stating that while the Centre would provide ₹1,000 crore, the remaining ₹2,000 crore would have to be mobilised by the state government and the university.

The Bengal government refused, accusing the Centre of deviating from the original scheme.

The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA), in a letter to Majumdar last year, said the requirement of a matching grant was never part of the original scheme and was introduced only later.

The association also questioned why Jio Institute, a private university, was granted IoE status without similar conditions.

Calls and text messages from this newspaper to minister Majumdar on Saturday went unanswered.

JUTA secretary Partha Pratim Roy said that in 2021, during Das’s tenure, JU had revised its proposed budget under the scheme to ₹600 crore and offered to raise the remaining amount if the Centre agreed to fund 75%.

The UGC turned down the revised proposal in June 2023.

“As it is now clear that JU will not be accorded the tag, we will write to the ministry seeking a refund,” Bhattacharjee said.