IIT-Madras Wednesday said it has tied-up with a second institute to offer direct PhD programme to B.Tech students who are entering final year.
It said such collaborations help encourage research and get more qualified faculty members to fill number of vacancies across IITs.
A memorandum of understanding was signed recently between IIT-M and Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM)-Kancheepuram.
The tie-up allows top 10 per cent of best performing B-Tech students of IIITDM-Kancheepuram now to seek direct admission to the PhD programme at IIT-M after completing their sixth semester (third year).
Selected candidates will spend their last year (fourth year) of undergraduate study at IIT-Madras in a more focused manner which will help them in the Phd programme, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR) Associate Dean V Kamakoti told PTI.
IIT-Madras will transfer credits to IIITDM to award B.Tech degree to students, he said.
The premier institute has similar tie-up with National Institute of Technology-Tiruchirappalli.
"This is an effort to encourage research and get more qualified faculties to fill number of vacancies across IITs, which has lot of vacancies," Kamakoti said.
The students will be screened through an internal test and an interview before they are selected to the direct Phd programme.
Other aspects of the MoU is collaboration in research and academics.
IIT M Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, "As the mentor of IIITDM, IIT Madras has always been closely associated with it. This MOU now enables greater interaction between the students as well."
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