Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) has signed a long-term educational and research pact with Queen’s University in Belfast.

The Irish institution is part of the Russell group of top-20 research-intensive universities in the UK, said to be the equivalent of the Ivy League in the US.

The tie-up will enable students and teachers of Besu to do two years’ doctoral research at Queen’s and a year at the Shibpur university. Both universities may confer the degree.

“The researchers will receive a stipend of £12,000 per year. The annual tuition fee of £10,000 will be waived,” said vice-chancellor Nikhil Ranjan Banerjee.

The collaboration will start with 20 Besu students in their second year of graduation spending 15 days at Queen’s as part of the Electronics Engineers Welcome Scheme 2008. The students have been chosen on the basis of their performance in the board examinations and the first and second semesters of graduation.

The students are from the departments of information technology, electronics and telecommunications, computer science and technology and electrical engineering. They will leave on June 14.

The passage money, about Rs 10 lakh for the group, will be borne by Besu. About Rs 3 lakh has come in the form of donation from the industry. Each student will receive a stipend of £600 for the trip.

According to Banerjee, this is the first time undergraduate students of the university are travelling abroad on a scholarship.

The Besu students will be working on short projects in Belfast. “There is also the option of doing our course project there,” said Rikhiya Ghosh, one of the students who have made the cut.

Students from Queen’s will also visit Besu. Faculty exchange, too, is on the cards.The Irish university will establish a research centre at Besu on removing arsenic from water. It will be called Queen’s Water Resource Centre and is to be inaugurated in November by the vice-chancellor of Queen’s, Peter Gregson, and NRI businessman Daljit Singh Rana.

“Far-flung villages in West Bengal will reap the benefits of the joint research,” said vice-chancellor Banerjee.