The partnership will also allow 50 undergraduates to study abroad each year because the two institutions will offer common courses during the third year of study.

Opportunities for MIT students to study abroad are rare because of the school's high number of required courses. The joint curricula that will be developed under the Cambridge-MIT Institute, along with the aid of distance-learning technology, will allow students to take their classes on the other side of the pond.

Bacow added that the partnership will provide MIT with the opportunity to educate future European leaders, foster relationships with European industry and aid in recruiting the best students and faculty to learn and teach here in Cambridge. In his words, the collaboration allows each of the universities to "build strength upon strength."

The agreement comes after a year-and-a-half of negotiations between the two universities and the British government, which hopes the program will become self-sufficient after five years.

But some Cambridge University lecturers were reportedly not happy about the deal, in part because the cash will be released gradually over the next five years, The Times of London reported today.

Theology lecturer Gillian Evans was quoted in The Times as saying the deal "was being pushed for political not academic reasons" and would lessen the university's independence.

"We are now in a situation where the government can say they won't release the next slice of cash unless we do 'x,"' she said.