Israeli Higher Education committee has decided not to grant the Ariel University Center, located in the West Bank city of Ariel, a university status, local media reported Thursday.

Following a six-hour long meeting, the planning and budgeting sub-committee, in charge of budgeting higher-education institutions, on Wednesday decided against a recommendation given seven years ago to make the center a full-fledged university.

In its statement, the sub-committee members said the decision is based on "what's best for the higher education system," yet right-wing politicians and the college's seniors, claim the decision was based on a political motives.

Last Weekend, university rectors urged the government not to grant the institute a university status.

The center, established three decades ago, has 12,500 students in it.

In the letter, the rectors urge that "there is no need for another research university. Establishing another research university would inflict critical damage upon higher education system."

Universities in Israel have been suffering loss of budgets and cuts in the past 20 years and are now trying to stabilize their situation.

Although in their letter the rectors insist that they were motivated solely by concern to the state of the higher education system, Hebrew University President, Menahem Ben Sasson, did give a political reason for his objection in an interview with the Ma' ariv daily last Wednesday.

"Granting a university status to Ariel is a strategic threat to the state," he said, adding that "we are putting the next Nobel Prize in danger."

Ariel, a mostly secular city of 18,000 residents, is a source of conflict within Israeli society.

Israeli leaders insist it would stay under Israeli sovereignty in any future peace accord. Yet others say it's a settlement, and even several theaters and artists have refused to perform there.

The planning and budgeting committee doesn't make the final decision over the center's status, but merely sends its recommendation to the Higher Education Council, set to make a final decision July 17.

However, as it is in charge of budgeting institutions and without its support, universities would find it virtually impossible to exist.

Ariel's president, Prof. Dan Meyerstein, harshly criticized the committee's decision.

"Ariel has done anything possible to meet the criteria and become a university. There's an expectation that in a properly-run state, that would be the end of the matter," he told the Ha'aretz daily Thursday.

He accused the council for "caving in to the guild of university presidents which, as always, objects to establishing a new institution."

On Thursday, right-wing legislators said they would introduce a bill to bypass the council and grant university status directly through the Knesset (parliament)

"I regret the Council of Higher Education yielded to narrow political pressure," Alex Miller, a Knesset (parliament) member from Israel Beytenu told Ynetnews.

He called the decision "outrageous" and a "direct hit" to the growth of higher education in Israel. Miller vowed to "act in every way" to ensure that the college received full university status.

The Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livant, who in 2005 brought forward the proposal to grant the university status, questioned the committee's motives.

"In light of the fact that the center has effectively been serving as a university with leading lecturers and scientists, it' s hard to avoid the impression that the recommendation is somehow politically motivated," LIvant told Ynetnews.

The University Presidents' Association said in response, that " we welcome the decision to carry out an in-depth examination of the format of Israel's higher education system. The examination is set to give the proper response to the current reality."

The Ariel University center published their response that "the budgeting and planning committee serves the old hegemony, controlled by the seven universities, acting according to the narrow interest of their institutions."