Chennai:The Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani is partnering with IIT Madras to promote academic and research collaboration between the two institutions. The five-year agreement establishes a framework for collaboration in areas of mutual academic and research interest and provides opportunities for the exchange of students and faculty, academic and scholarly information, materials, and publication, a release from the IIT Madras here on Wednesday said.

Accordingly, the collaboration will also facilitate the joint organisation of seminars, workshops, and other academic meetings. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) towards this collaboration was signed on Tuesday at the IIT Madras campus by Prof V Ramgopal Rao, Group Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani, and Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras.

A key component of the collaboration is the student exchange programme, under which students from BITS Pilani and IIT Madras will be able to undertake academic coursework, research activities, and project work at the partner institution.

Students participating in the programme will be designated as special exchange students and will have the opportunity to enrol in courses for credit or audit, subject to the approval of the relevant faculty or project supervisors and fulfilment of applicable prerequisites.

Another key feature of this exchange programme is the provision of tuition-fee waivers at the host institution. Credits and grades earned during the exchange programme will be recognised by the home institution based on the academic report provided by the host institution.