The London Metal Exchange (LME), the non-ferrous metals market which offers futures and options contracts for many leading metals, made significant annual donations from 2009 to the Wits School of Mining Engineering with a view to assisting disadvantaged students. As a direct result, the 1st year student throughput at the School has increased significantly.

Professor Fred Cawood, head of the Wits School of Mining Engineering, aims to increase the percentage of sponsored students in the school to provide opportunities for those drawn from a disadvantaged socio-economic background and the donation from LME fulfilled this exact purpose.

“Our objective is to identify students who are needy – students coming from poor families who cannot afford to study, and deserving – those who have a realistic chance of success if their money problems are resolved. These problems vary with students and we do our best to address the causes leading to under-performance rather than merely treating the symptoms,” says Professor Cawood.

A group of deserving students were identified in 2010 as suitable beneficiaries and out of the 12 students who benefitted from the initiative; all are still in the system while one left Wits for another university. Seven cleared all their second year subjects in 2011 and four students will be on cross curriculum – taking a combination of second and third year subjects.

“This is a remarkable achievement if you consider that traditionally more than 50% of students drop out of the university system in the first year alone. The success of this initiative was a realisation of one of the school’s on-going primary goals with 100% of the first year class of 2010 (who benefitted from the LME donation) still on track to obtain their degrees and graduate from the program at the end of 2013,” comments Professor Cawood.

In 2011 another 14 students benefitted from the LME initiative, with 11 receiving clear passes and three students returning on a cross curriculum programme – a 78% success rate with none of them having dropped out.

The outstanding performance of these students is a clear testimony as to what can be achieved in partnerships with sponsors like LME, who are passionate about providing education and dedicated to producing quality mining engineering graduates.

“The donation from LME has made a significant difference in the lives of these students by affording them the opportunity to pursue the career of their dreams, many of whom would be destined for poverty without their Wits education,” concludes Professor Cawood.