Michael Arthur, vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds, shakes hands with vice-chancellor of BIT, Mesra, SK Mukherjee after signing the MoU. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, March 27: Students of Electrical, Electronic, Production and Automotive Engineering of the Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra, will now have added option of getting dual degrees, one from BIT and other from the University of Leeds.

The deemed university has entered into an agreement with the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Vice-Chancellor of BIT Mesra S.K.Mukherjee today signed an agreement with Michael Arthur, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. This is not the only university, which has agreed to provide degrees to the students of BIT. University of New Brunswick in Canada and another university in the UK had, earlier, reached similar agreements with BIT.

The present agreement would allow interested students to study for two years in BIT and in the third year, they can opt for Leeds, where they would spend another two years, but get a master?s degree in the respective stream. ?The best part is that a student of Bachelors in Engineering would get a master?s degree in just four years instead of the total six years. The university authorities scrutinised our syllabus and were satisfied. This is good news for us as they have deemed the syllabus up to their standards,? said Mukherjee.

The minimum eligibility criteria for enjoying the opportunity is to procure at least 70 per cent marks in Plus Two and 60 per cent in first and second year of BIT.

Education as well as the lodging and fooding expenses would be borne by the students. The authorities have also said the university would review the programme after six months, and then think of other programmes.