IChemE and SAIChE have launched a Joint Student Membership offer designed to provide the strongest possible, relevant and professional product, supportive to students being educated for a career as a chemical engineer. The membership should provide immediate benefits to help students with their studies, aid their preparation for employment and enhance their awareness of the international and sectoral diversity of their discipline. Uptake is desirable as a means of introducing students to the value of early engagement with our profession.

IChemE has a strong commitment to academia and to undergraduate students, which is driven by the need to provide a quality pipeline of talent to the process industries. IChemE provides, through its student affiliate membership package, a comprehensive and tailored offering to students, particularly in those key countries where it has well-established branches and strong relationships with university departments. Information Technology is increasingly being used to enhance this service offer. IChemE offers a range of student-relevant resources to students in South Africa. These will be tailored using South African case studies and will be available online. Students in South Africa will need to be a member of both IChemE and SAIChE to access these resources using a personalized login and password.

The joint product should add value to SAIChE by providing a greater range of benefits to students than that currently provided. This will create a greater affinity to SAIChE and raise awareness of its activities to the students. In terms of value add to IChemE, the joint product allows IChemE to have contact with South African students, providing an opportunity to showcase its activities, the wider international profession and to extol the benefits of a professionally qualified membership. The subscription revenue raised will be used to benefit society through activities involving international development of the chemical engineering profession.

All chemical engineering and biochemical engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate or taught masters degree program (eg, BE, BTech, MTech, MSc) can benefit from the membership. Existing SAIChE student members enrolled at South African universities will immediately be eligible to upgrade their membership so as to secure the benefits, subject to payment of an adjusting subscription (effective January 2010). Students will need to enrol by completing a simple application form and paying an attractive student subscription fee (payable in rands).

While the subscription will be greater than the current SAIChE subscription alone, the range of benefits available will be greatly enhanced. Visit the SAIChE website (www.saiche.co.za) and scroll down to "Sister Organisations" for more information and to join or upgrade your membership.

Be on the lookout for launch events which will be arranged at selected institutions. Promotional materials will be sent to institutions not earmarked for launch events. We encourage Heads of Chemical Engineering Departments to support this initiative and to encourage students to take up this offer.

Volunteers are sought from universities for liaison and providing the occasional delivery of membership presentations at the department level. If interested, please contact SAIChE at saiche@mweb.co.za.