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13 August 2020 | Story Andre Damons
Follow these three easy steps to enter the Three-Minute Thesis Competition. Will you be this year’s winner?

 

The Three-Minute Thesis Competition, also known as the ‘3MT’, is an annual competition held at 200 universities around the world. It is open to PhD and master’s students, and challenges participants to present their research in just 180 seconds – in a way that is understood by an audience with no background in the research area. 


The UFS Postgraduate School was the first to bring the ‘Three-Minute Thesis’ (3MT) competition to Africa. The Three-Minute Thesis competition originates from the University of Queensland, Australia, and has now become an annual event at the UFS.

The competition aims to help participants develop presentation, research, and academic communication skills, as well as to support the development of research students’ ability to effectively explain their work. 
Although our country is in the midst of a pandemic, the annual competition continues. This year’s Three-Minute Thesis competition will be hosted online at
- The competition will first be hosted at the faculty level; faculty entries close at 14 August 2020

- Winners at faculty level will compete against each other at the Institutional level on 9 October 2020 and will stand a chance at winning these awesome cash prizes

UFS INSTITUTIONAL PRIZES FOR 2020 ARE:

Position Prizes 2020
Master’s winner R6 000
Master’s 1st runner-up R4 000
Master’s 2nd runner-up R2 000
PhD winner  R8 000
PhD 1st runner-up R6 000
PhD 2nd runner-up R4 000

 

Institutional winners will compete against other universities at the national level on 6 November 2020.


News Archive

“To interpret is more than the ability to have mastered two languages”
2014-03-27

 

It is equally unfair to the accused as the victim when an untrained court interpreter is used in a court case.

In South Africa there are currently a large percentage of interpreters employed by the Department of Justice without any formal training.

While interpreting is in reality a very complex subject, the general acceptance is that everybody who is able speak two languages or more can be an interpreter.

This perception harms interpreting as a profession, as it results in most institutions appointing any multilingual person as an interpreter.

In many cases people are used to interpret into and from their third or fourth language (of which Afrikaans is one). This leads to inaccuracy and the incorrect use of expressions and terminology. Specific cognitive processes also have to be developed and practiced.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has since 2008 trained approximately 200 court interpreters in South Africa. This training includes the theory of interpreting and practical exercises, as well as the development of terminology and a basic knowledge of the legal system in South Africa.

The training provided to court interpreters by the Unit for Language Management and Facilitation, is done in conjunction with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and SASSETA (Safety and Security).

Apart from Afrikaans, native speakers of all South African languages are included in the training.

Much attention (rightfully) are given to interpreters who can interpret between the nine African languages and (mostly) English, but in the process the development of interpreters between Afrikaans and English was neglected, as became apparent in the past two weeks during the Oscar Pistorius case.


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