NDAs and Other Documents

Some external IRPs may require formal documentation, such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), three-way internship agreements, or visa-related letters.

Agreements Between the Student and External Organisation

If an external organisation wishes to set up a formal agreement with a student - for example, an NDA, internship agreement, or contract - it is their responsibility to arrange this directly with the student. We cannot sign any documents on behalf of students and does not act as an intermediary in these arrangements.

Students are solely responsible for reviewing and understanding the content of any documents they are asked to sign. We cannot provide legal advice or templates for such agreements. If students have concerns about the terms they are being asked to agree to, they must seek independent guidance.

It is also the responsibility of both the student and the external organisation to ensure that all necessary documentation is fully completed, agreed upon, and in place before the IRP begins.

Agreements Between the Department and External Organisation

External organisations wishing to have a document reviewed and signed by the department - whether an NDA or another formal agreement - must send it to Thomas Dray at t.dray@imperial.ac.uk. Thomas coordinates the review process and arranges for signatures where appropriate. Sufficient time should always be allowed for the department to review and process any document.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)

In cases where the external IRP includes confidential information, the department may agree to sign an NDA covering all relevant staff involved in supervision and assessment. This allows access to the student’s written report and, ideally, their code, which is required for supervision and marking. The department will only consider signing such an NDA after the student has been formally allocated to the project.

When an NDA is in place, viva examinations will be held privately, and student’s work will not be made publicly available. However, this NDA applies only to department staff. If the external partner requires the student to be bound by the same or similar terms, the student must sign a separate agreement directly with the external organisation.

Sharing Code with the Department

We understand that it is sometimes a requirement from external organisations for the student to work within a private code repository hosted by the company. If confidentiality requirements prevent code from being submitted to the student’s IRP GitHub repository, the student and both supervisors must agree on an alternative method for granting the internal supervisor access to the code. While we leave it up to the student and their supervisors to decide what method works best, it is essential that the internal (second) supervisor is sufficiently satisfied that they can evaluate the student’s work, confirm that the work was done by the student, and that the report accurately reflects their contribution. Some of the possible approaches that can be considered include:

• If permitted by the external organisation, the internal supervisor may be granted access to the private repository for limited time where the code is hosted.

• The student and the internal supervisor can arrange a meeting where the student demonstrates the code and answers questions. For example, by sharing their screen so that no code transfer takes place.

• If the student was contributing to an existing codebase in a private repository owned by an external organisation, the student may transfer the most significant and original contributions they made into their IRP GitHub repository, so that no pre-existing codebase is shared.

• Since all written reports are already accessible to the department (and are covered under the NDA if one is in place), the student may include the most important code snippets, such as functions or classes they developed in the appendix of their final report. Please avoid including the entire codebase. The appendix is not included in the word count.

When the code is not shared in the student’s GitHub repository, we rely on the external organisation to support and uphold academic integrity expectations.

Other Documents

In addition to NDAs, external organisations or students may request other documents to be signed by the department. These include three-way internship agreements (such as the Convention de Stage), confirmations of enrolment or IRP-specific details, and visa support letters. As with NDAs, it is the external partner’s responsibility to prepare these documents. The department does not provide templates and cannot offer legal advice on their content.