Dear SPE Aberdeen members, colleagues and friends,
Student members make up about 25% of our membership, As the future of our industry, they are a much-valued part of our section.
We support 5 student chapters in universities across Scotland (Aberdeen, RGU, Dundee, Heriot Watt and Strathclyde). At our section awards ceremony held during Offshore Europe, the Heriot Watt team was presented with the best student chapter award, with the University of Dundee student chapter being highly commended – well done to both.
The student chapters are supported by the section through the Student Development Committee. Now that the new academic year is well underway this Committee is busy visiting all the student chapters, introducing them to SPE and explaining the benefits of being a student member. More details on how the committee supports the students are available on our website.
The student chapters operate as largely independent groups – usually registered as a “society” at their university. They organise a wide variety of professional and social activities. A number of field trips have taken place this year – to the PX Limited Gas Plant at St Fergus, Shell’s Mossmoran NGL Plant and to Maersk Oil’s facilities in Aberdeen. The team from Heriot Watt made it all the way to the finals of Petrobowl at ATCE 2017 – a fantastic achievement and the only team from the UK to do so. Each chapter regularly has industry professionals joining them and give presentations. They are always interested in hearing from members interested in visiting, giving presentations and talking to the students so please let me know if you would like to be involved (aberdeen-chair@spe-uk.org).
Our annual student bursary awards were launched at the end of last month; the deadline for receipt of applications is 27 November with the awards made early 2018. We are proud that this year, we are again in a position to award up to £20,000 – 3 x £2500 scholarships and 15 x £500 awards. This is made possible by the modest surplus that we make from some of the events we hold throughout the year. Good luck to all the applicants!
If you are interested in getting involved with the Student Development Committee and helping support our students please contact the committee chair Ritika Pawer at SD.chair@spe-uk.org
