The state's Higher Education department has derailed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's plan to grant autonomy for the elite Presidency College, his alma mater.

Citing the report of a seven-member committee, Minister for Higher Education Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury told the Legislative Assembly on Monday that Presidency would get financial and administrative autonomy "but within the affiliation system of Calcutta University".

"The course and curriculum will be finally decided by the university," Roy Chowdhury said, effectively nixing Presidency's dreams of being able to set its own curriculum to differentiate itself from the hundreds of other colleges in the university system.

The Jesuit-run St Xavier's College, which has a 5-star ranking from the NAAC, secured full autonomy in March 2006. Xavier's is now free to set student fees, the curriculum, and courses, and also hold its own examinations, although its gradu ates will continue to get the Calcutta University degree.

Ever since Xavier's got autonomy, the chief minister, a former student of Presidency, has been trying to secure the same status for the 152-year college.

When Presidency approached the Government with its autonomy request last year, the Higher Education department had set up seven-member committee of experts. The committee included former chief justice Chittatosh Mookerjee, former Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan, historian Barun De, and econo mist Bhabatosh Dutta, among others.