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Between 2008 and 2021, the Sasol Foundation awarded over 2000 bursaries and scholarships to students across the 26 public universities in South Africa. A great many of those were able to follow their dreams and be the first in their families’ history to pursue higher education.
In the 2021 academic year, the programme supported 268 undergraduate bursars and 77 postgraduate students.
Quietly and mostly unnoticed, young black student scientists are battling enormous odds to do great research.
We don’t want these brilliant young minds to fail because of a lack of resources and so we go in to bat for researchers who are toiling away at historically disadvantaged institutions.
When educational institutions switched to online learning because of COVID-19 lockdowns, many students from historically marginalised groups lacked the ability (basically, the money) to do remote learning. So the Sasol Foundation swung into action, providing laptops and data allowances to Sasol-funded students who really needed the help.
During the 2020 and 2021 academic years the Sasol Foundation supported 132 postgraduate students at historically disadvantaged institutions, 97 of whom were at masters and doctoral levels. This group beat the odds, producing outstanding research outputs which included 77 peer-reviewed journal articles and two book chapters.
Among these students is Alven Sibusiso who hails from the Eastern Cape. Sibusiso received a Sasol Foundation scholarship in 2016 to pursue his BSc Honours in chemistry at the University of Fort Hare. We’ve been backing him ever since; in 2017/2018 Alven proceeded to his masters and in 2019 he received a foundation scholarship for his doctoral studies. To date he has been published 16 times.
“There are many things the Sasol Foundation has helped me with from both a financial and mentorship perspective. The mentorship, in particular, has really helped me with my academics. I’ve gained valuable lessons in how to study better and how to manage my time,” says Alven.
“Many of my colleagues here at Fort Hare have been helped greatly by Sasol. Next year, I’m hoping to complete my post-doctoral studies either at Nelson Mandela University or here at Fort Hare.”
