Hyderabad: Satyam Computer Services (NYSE:SAY) and Victoria University (VU) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost opportunities for both Victorian ICT students and businesses.

B Rama Raju, co-founder and managing director of Satyam, was present during the signing of the agreement along with Marsha Thomson, the minister for information and communication technology, Victoria.

B Rama Raju said: "The new alliance will enable up to ten VU students to undertake a software development internship with Satyam each year. We are also set to annually recruit up to 20 software engineers from the university to undergo a three months training course in India and China."

The alliance also paves the way for the parties to carry out joint research projects as well as creating the opportunity for VU to nominate Satyam executives to deliver guest lectures to ICT students on subjects that represent core competencies within the company.

"On successful completion of the training, the students will be allocated to projects either in Melbourne, or one of our other 46 locations around the world," Raju said.

Thomson said the alliance with Satyam is a major coup for Victoria, " The Memorandum of Understanding signed between Satyam and VU today will provide excellent global opportunities for Victorian ICT students that will have a direct flow-on effect to our local industry," she said.

"What we have with this alliance is a real investment by one of the world's leading ICT service providers - Satyam - in the people that make up our ICT industry in Victoria .

"From training in an international environment, to student-industry exchange programs, right through to the joint research projects between Satyam and Victoria University, the benefits of this alliance will be for students and the industry alike.

"Once again we can see the fruit of relationships built during the ICT trade mission to India in October last year. It is very exciting that a company of the calibre of Satyam recognises the potential we have here in Victoria, by not only recently setting up its largest global development centre outside India in Melbourne, but now also making an additional strategic commitment to invest in Victoria's human capital," she said.