Jerusalem — An Israeli college in the occupied West Bank that began upgrading to university status last year is being stripped of its university title, and the head of the fledgling institution is criticizing the move as mistaken and “politically motivated.”

The University Center of Samaria, in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, has more than 10,000 undergraduate students, 38 doctoral students, and 220 senior faculty members, in 24 departments across five disciplines. Until last year, it was known as the College of Judea and Samaria. An official change in title was approved by the Israeli Justice Ministry in July 2007, on the suggestion of a government committee that recommended that the college be upgraded to a “university center” in preparation for becoming Israel’s eighth recognized research university.

But despite the ministry’s approval, the Council of Higher Education, which oversees financing for higher education, opposed granting university status to the college. And some Israeli academics and others opposed to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank appealed to the Supreme Court to stop the upgrade. Their petition was rejected in February 2007.

Now it has emerged that at a meeting at the Justice Ministry on January 3, government officials decided that the college’s upgrade and change of name had not been properly approved by the relevant Israeli military commander in the West Bank. On March 19, the Council of Higher Education wrote to the Justice Ministry, requesting that it reverse an earlier decision to approve the name change.

Yigal Cohen-Orgad, chairman of the executive committee of the University Center of Samaria, said the college had followed the government-approved procedures to the letter. He said he had still not been officially informed of the January meeting or of the decision made there.

“It’s a mistaken decision for sure,” Mr. Cohen-Orgad said. “We will continue our work. … If they want, they can take legal action. There was no negotiation, but we are always ready to sit down and discuss things in a rational way.” —Matthew Kalman