Two new groups of students have arrived in Cambridge to study here for a year under initiatives run by the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), the joint venture that links Cambridge with MIT.

Last Thursday, 44 undergraduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came to Cambridge for the start of a full-year undergraduate exchange programme. They have swapped places with an equal number of Cambridge students who have gone to Boston to study at MIT. Meanwhile today, Monday 7 October, the University is opening its doors to the first intake of graduate students on three pioneering new Master's degree programmes.

These programmes have been developed with the support of CMI. They are unique here in that although the degree is awarded by Cambridge University, the students will be taught by Faculty members from both Cambridge and MIT.

Forty-three graduate students have come to Cambridge to study on the new BioScience Enterprise, Technology Policy, and Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development Master's programmes. This morning, they are being formally welcomed at an event at Cambridge's business school, the Judge Institute of Management. There, they will be greeted by representatives from MIT and Cambridge, including the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Alec Broers.

At the event, the two directors of CMI's Professional Practice Programme - Professor Dan Roos from MIT, and Professor Nick Oliver from Cambridge - will discuss how the two universities are developing new educational offerings together.

The multi-disciplinary Master's programmes - which provide both technical expertise, business and policy breadth - draw on MIT's successful track record in running similar courses. All the new Master's programmes offer students the opportunity to combine a discipline base in science or engineering with courses on business and entrepreneurship, and policy, provided by Cambridge's business school, the Judge Institute of Management. At MIT, the ability of students to combine disciplines is seen as a major contributor to its success in stimulating the start-up of new companies. All three new courses emphasise practical applications, case studies and interaction with industry.

Professor Oliver says:

"The fact that these new courses offer a combination of technical depth and business breadth is vital - we need scientists and engineers who have a sound grasp of business and policy, and business people who understand the science."

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