The decision to have a “quick discussion” with faculty members was taken after a meeting scheduled on Saturday was cancelled. The UGC team is expected to begin its three-day visit at MSU from February 16.

Joshi said: “We had discussed things earlier in a preliminary fashion and are meeting on Monday to finalise the different requirements of the university. We have asked for Rs 160 crore from the UGC and now a team is coming to assess that requirement.” He said around Rs 2 crore have been sanctioned by the UGC but it was a tentative allocation.

A section of senior teachers at MSU feel the university will be better off putting its case before the visiting team if it assigns coordination work to teachers and professors who have been part of such UGC teams at other places in the past and have some experience of the process.

The team will meet the MSU top brass and will also carry out a detailed visit and inspection at faculties and departments, assessing their actual requirements and the proposals made in the 11th Plan, submitted to the UGC in its prescribed format.