The University of New Orleans and Nicholls State University have signed an agreement to create a defined path for Nicholls students to earn a bachelor’s degree in engineering from UNO. The agreement also lays out the courses that UNO students can take at Nicholls in order to obtain a professional land surveyor certification.

UNO President John Nicklow and Nicholls State President Jay Clune signed a memorandum of understanding during a ceremony held Tuesday on the Nicholls campus. The agreement creates a pathway for students from Nicholls to easily transition to UNO to complete a bachelor’s degree in the College of Engineering, and for students from UNO to complete courses at Nicholls that would help them attain a professional land surveying certification from the Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Survey Board.

“This partnership creates a road map for Nicholls students to earn an engineering degree, and for our students in surveying and geomatics,” said UNO President John Nicklow. “By creating new pathways, we’re making those degrees more accessible to a wider population, which is ultimately what we’re trying to do: create a more educated community and region.”

Together the institutions will also collaborate on research projects centering around engineering, surveying and environmental issues.

“We need coastal engineering in order to save our coast and in order to have coastal engineering, you need civil engineering,” said Nicholls President Jay Clune. “This gives our students an opportunity to earn a civil engineering degree by doing most of the course work here at Nicholls, then finishing at UNO and returning to this area, rather than going to a faraway university, staying there and not returning home. We need our students to come back and help us save our coast.”

The agreement, which is effective immediately, outlines the specific courses that will transfer between the two universities.

The University of New Orleans has the only civil, electrical and mechanical engineering programs in the greater New Orleans area, as well as one of the few naval architecture and marine engineering programs in the nation. Nicholls State has the only geomatics program in Louisiana.

The University of Louisiana Board of Supervisors approved the memorandum of understanding at its Feb. 22 meeting.