PROVIDENCE — Brown University President Ruth Simmons and Rhode Island School of Design President Roger Mandle yesterday signed an agreement to establish a dual-degree program for undergraduates, a step the presidents humorously called “a marriage” they hope will lead to increasingly close ties between the institutions.

They anticipate students studying film at RISD and English at Brown, for example, or sculpture at RISD and chemistry at Brown, or other as-yet unimagined combinations. Students accepted into the program, which will begin next fall, would receive a bachelor in fine arts from RISD and a bachelor of arts from the Ivy League university over five years.

“This will harness the strengths of both Brown and RISD,” Simmons said at a brief ceremony at the University Club, noting Brown’s international reputation for academics and RISD’s for creative excellence. “This gives our students the rigorous and liberating education they so richly deserve.”

Simmons said she anticipates further collaborations among students and faculty, and sharing of resources, such as RISD’s museum and Brown’s libraries.

“What we want to signal is that we are dedicated to [collaboration] and there is more that we can do together,” she said. “I’ve always thought this is the direction higher education should take, because learning increasingly crosses lines. But it is very difficult for institutions to do.”

Mandle, who is in his last year as RISD’s president, noted the two schools have been involved with each other for decades, through their proximity on College Hill, shared student organizations, and a long tradition of allowing each other’s students to take classes for free. Last year, about 150 students from each institution cross-registered, taking one or two classes at the other school.

A handful of students have fashioned together joint degrees on their own, a difficult process the institutions say the new program will make easier.

“It really was the students who showed us it [could] be done, that it was possible to take the barriers away,” Mandle said. “There was no reason that Brown and RISD couldn’t be involved in a deeper relationship.”

Andrew Bearnot, 21, a fourth-year student studying materials engineering at Brown and glass at RISD, said he was initially met with resistance when he tried to pursue joint degrees at the schools. He will finish his major at RISD in May and return to Brown next fall for his final, fifth year.

“The logistics were tight,” said Bearnot, who applied to RISD after having already begun his studies at Brown. “When I started at Brown, I knew I’d study math, science or engineering in a liberal-arts setting, but I also knew I had a fine-art interest and background in craft.”

Officials at the schools say they want to make it easier for students such as Bearnot to pursue interdisciplinary studies, although they anticipate the program will be small. Only about 10 students will be accepted the first year, and about 20 in subsequent years.

“You have to be quite talented to get into Brown, and you have to be quite talented to get into RISD,” said David Kertzer, Brown’s provost. Brown accepts 13 percent of undergraduate applicants; RISD accepts 33 percent. “So even though a more visible collaboration is something a lot of people have expected us to do for a long time, the program is very new and in some sense experimental. We will have to wait and see the extent of the applicant pool.”

Faculty from both institutions have embraced the concept and are looking forward to pursuing shared research projects, said Rosanne Somerson, a professor of furniture design who served as RISD’s interim associate provost and helped to develop the program.

Somerson said the dual degree addresses a growing need in higher education to combine areas that until recently were considered separate and unrelated.

“Artists and designers are wanting to be much more engaged in the world in ways that might not be addressed in a design school,” Somerson said. “At the same time, more people are realizing that design and art are valuable not only in and of themselves, but also in the formulation of thinking and expressing ideas.”

The program is designed for students “of incredible maturity at age 18, with incredible time-management skills,” Somerson said.

The institutions plan to offer students intensive mentoring and guidance, and will start reviewing applications this fall, said Shelley Stephenson, Brown’s assistant provost.

Students must first apply separately to each school, indicating their interest in the dual degree. Once they’ve been accepted at both, a team of faculty and administrators from both institutions will consider students for the five-year program.

The handful of accepted students will complete Brown’s summer orientation, then enter RISD’s first year “foundation” program, which grounds students in the elements of design, art and drawing and life in RISD housing. They will spend the bulk of their second year at Brown and live on Brown’s campus; the following three years will be split between the two institutions and students may study abroad for a semester or year if they wish, Stephenson said.

Establishing the program required the cooperation of admissions officers, housing officials, registrars, academic administrators and faculty.

“The two institutions agreed students would all pay Brown’s tuition and be eligible for Brown’s financial aid, which is more generous,” Stephenson said. Brown costs about $46,000 a year and the university offers needs-blind admissions to all students.

Officials stopped short of saying the collaboration might be a first step in merging the two schools, but acknowledged a potential for even greater synergy.

“Both institutions have very strong independent identities,” said RISD Provost Jay Coogan. Brown opened 244 years ago and RISD is 130 years old. “But this kind of partnership is so right for the time we live in, and there’s potential now for a lot of discussion about how we can work together.”

jjordan@projo.com