Jadavpur University will be able to “compete with” the top institutions like the IITs and NITs once it receives ₹1,250 crore from the state and central governments under the institute of eminence programme, vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said on Friday.

Bengal’s finance minister, Swapan Dasgupta, announced in the BJP’s first budget on Monday that JU would receive ₹1,000 crore from the Union government and ₹250 crore from the state over five years to elevate the university to an institute of eminence.

Bhattacharjee said JU had slipped in the annual National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings in recent years compared with the IITs and NITs, but hoped the grant would help it regain lost ground.

“JU has registered a decline in the engineering category in an annual ranking exercise by the Union education ministry. The institutions that had been ranked above JU are the IITs and the NITs,” Bhattacharjee said on Friday.

“The funds that JU will be provided as part of the institute of eminence programme will help us in improving civil and research infrastructure.”

JU, long regarded as one of the country’s top engineering institutions, has seen a steady slide in the NIRF engineering rankings. It was ranked 10th in 2023, 12th in 2024, and dropped to 18th in 2025 — its lowest position since the rankings were introduced in 2015.

A study of the 2025 rankings shows that apart from IITs such as IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur, three NITs — Tiruchirappalli, Surathkal and Rourkela — ranked above JU.

Bhattacharjee hoped that JU would be able to “attract and retain top-notch students” from the Bengal JEE with the infrastructure overhaul the university is planning following the receipt of the ₹1,250 crore grant.

“We plan to use 70% of the grant to improve research infrastructure, while the remaining 30% will be spent on civil infrastructure,” the VC said.

More than 150 of JU’s 1,308 BTech seats remained vacant after the centralised counselling conducted by the state JEE board last year.

A JU official said that although the cost of studying engineering at the university remained much lower than at the IITs and NITs, many top rankers opted for central institutions because of their stronger infrastructure.

“At JU, the engineering departments struggle with obsolete computers or software. They frequently appeal to the former students for help because JU does not have adequate funds. If the infrastructure remains poor, JU will never be able to retain bright students and compete with IITs and the NITs,” the official said.

“We hope that institutions of eminence status will be a game changer.”