Industry Assistance Required Urgently for Student Projects at University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen is calling for help from industry for individual project for students on their undergraduate / postgraduate programme in petroleum engineering and the post graduate degree in reservoir engineering.
The PE undergraduate programme was launched in 2008, the MSc several years later. The RE MSc has been up and running for five years. Since their respective launches, all programmes have enjoyed a healthy degree of industry support in respect of projects and data sets. However, there are indications half way through this academic year (2018 – 2019) that a lack of industry projects could be an issue. The individual projects are not only fundamental to the award of the degree, they provide a platform for improved connection and communication between the university and the industry it serves.
Iain Percival, Honorary Professor, commented, ‘I spent 34 years working in Shell as a petroleum geologist and petroleum engineer culminating as the Shell group global chief petroleum engineer. An important part of the role was in recruitment. It was always obvious which students had benefited from an industry sponsored individual project. There was an obvious understanding of technical / business issues not so easily found in students who had not benefited from such an opportunity.
Over the years the industry in Aberdeen has played a crucial role in shaping the capabilities of the graduates required to staff the business. My appeal to the industry is for a continuation of this tradition. I appreciate that an investment of staff / supervisory time is required but there is a payback in terms of graduate caliber. The Wood report and subsequently established OGA emphasise the importance of improved inter company collaboration to impact operating costs, improved hydrocarbon recovery and effective utilization of shared infrastructure. Improved collaboration between the industry and the University of Aberdeen is equally important to the realization of the vision through the provision of a continuing stream of well qualified, “industry ready” graduates.’
The contact points for the degree programmes are:
Petroleum Engineering: Dr Lateef Akanji 01224 272793 l.akanji@abdn.ac.uk
Reservoir Engineering: Dr Mehrdad Manzari 01224 272976 mtmanzari@abdn.ac.uk
