2022 Sasol Sustainability Report - Book - Page 36
SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR FOCUS AREAS
INTRODUCTION
DATA AND ASSURANCE
GROWING SHARED VALUE (CONTINUED)
Access to quality education (continued)
WHAT WE ARE DOING (CONTINUED)
Access to tertiary education
SOUTH AFRICA
MOZAMBIQUE
• Our bursary programmes offer a comprehensive package that
includes academic and psychosocial support to enable students
to deal with academic demands and other issues that may impact
their performance.
• To ensure that students start their careers on a strong footing,
we offer work readiness courses. As part of the programme
to build skills and enhance the livelihoods of youth in our fenceline
communities, we provide bursary support to eligible students
to enable them to access tertiary education.
• A total of 218 students completed their studies at the end of the
2021 academic year and more than 600 active bursary holders
continued with their studies. This includes both undergraduate
and postgraduate studies.
• Sasol is supporting Eskom to build a pool of skilled graduates
in STEM, from some Eskom power stations in Mpumalanga and
Free State provinces, as part of doing business together.
POSTGRADUATE SCIENCE FELLOWSHIP
PROGRAMME – TERTIARY
Research support
• Sasol collaborates with universities to provide funding support for
postgraduate scholarships and to strengthen their research and
innovation capacity.
• In 2021/2022, we disbursed research grants worth R11 million to five
universities.
• There were 68 peer-reviewed publication outputs produced through
postgraduate research. These outputs will generate a revenue of
approximately R8 million for universities, through subsidy from the
Department of Higher Education and Training.
We support various HDIs through our Postgraduate Science
Fellowship programme where our primary aim is to increase
the number of black researchers majoring in Chemistry and
Environmental Chemistry. To further build research capacity
at these institutions and improve postgraduate research
training, Sasol donates critical research equipment.
full-time academics
supporting the pool of
oncoming graduates
NORTH AMERICA
• Sasol announced its
partnership with Southern
University and A&M College,
a historically black university
located in Baton Rouge, LA,
in 2021. The partnership
includes a US$1 million
endowment that will provide
Southern students with the
resources needed to enter
the workforce in highdemand, high-growth fields.
Louisiana’s business climate
continues to rank at the
top of the national list and
this partnership works to
maintain that competitive
advantage.
South Africa produced 54 PhD graduates per million in 2017. Although this number reflects an increase from 2010, the graduation rate
of PhD graduates in South Africa remains low compared to international standards. The National Development Plan has set a target to
produce 100 doctoral graduates per million per year by 2030.
An important part of this plan is to support Historically
Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs) to further social justice
and equality.
69 of our doctoral
students are now
• Our interventions to contribute to building
a pool of oil and gas graduates in the
country continue. Our initial target was
to release 37 oil and gas graduates in the
country by the end of 2022.
• The last 12 students at the University of
Pretoria and UTP Petronas – Malaysia have
now completed their studies. With the
last graduating student, Sasol reached
a total of 37 students to complete their
higher education in oil and gas between
2014 and 2022. In December 2021, Sasol
with the Ministry of Mineral Resources
and Energy (MIREME) welcomed the last
group of graduates, signalling the end
of the programme. Sasol is discussing
with MIREME a new phase of the bursary
programme.
General market research shows that throughput rates from
undergraduates to postgraduates are, to a large degree,
affected by financial constraints. Another discouraging factor
is the perceived “over-qualification” of a doctoral degree,
risking unemployment associated to expensive study.
However, with our postgraduate programme these challenges
are addressed and a positive experience has been established.
This became especially clear when we saw a 90% transition of
our bursars from Honours to MSc, which was a 50% increase
from our set target of 40%. Six of our recent doctoral
students are now academics in a full-time capacity teaching
and supporting upcoming postgraduate students. One of the
challenges that the South African university sector is facing,
is the under-representation of the black African researchers
and academics, in particular, those who are South African
born. The most noteworthy impact of our programme is the
development of a new generation of black academics and
researchers who are local, thus contributing in transforming
the demographics of our universities.
One of our students from the University of Limpopo was part
of a team that won an SMME award for its doctoral research
on treating acid mine-water.
Sasol has a long history of funding research at South African
universities through contract research and student bursaries.
Over the past 16 years, it has also contributed more than
R300 million through its R&T University Collaboration
Programme, which provides research grants to academics
for projects in the key disciplines of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering.
Dr Thembakazi Mali, Senior Vice President: Research and
Technology at Sasol said: “The R&T University Collaboration
Programme provides Sasol with a unique opportunity to not
only support local academia but also leverage external
research efforts to find solutions to the complex technical
SASOL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
35
challenges that must be addressed as part of our
climate change response efforts.”
Of interest to Sasol is research in hydrogen production,
renewable energy, energy storage and carbon dioxide
conversion to chemical and fuels – all key areas critical to
enabling Sasol’s environmental and business sustainability
goals. With our ambition to be Net Zero by 2050, this
renewed focus will broaden the scholarship’s value, creating
access to new opportunities for a sustainable future.
We awarded 22 new scholarships to postgraduates in 2022.
As part of our unique top-up, we provide research mentorship
support through our in-house subject matter experts. We also
provide students with short-term access to well-equipped
institutions for additional research training and sample
analysis.
We are proud to report that our bursars produced 69
publications with 40 students having completed their MSc
and PhD studies in 2021.
This scholarship programme is just one of our initiatives
that supports Sasol’s Purpose.
CASE STUDIES
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
bursary programme
• 32 students are recipients of the Sasol Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) bursary programme, selected in the
2021/2022 period. A cohort will be selected each year for the next
five years.
• The students come from Nkangala, Gert Sibande and Flavius Mareka
TVET colleges, studying electrical and chemical engineering. They
will be further upskilled with renewable energy courses such as
solar and green hydrogen to help address the country’s critical skills
shortage and contribute to solving the country’s energy challenges.