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Annerie on route to Protea dreams

27 December 2021 | Story Jóhann Thormählen | Photo Supplied

She enjoyed every second of playing with some of her heroes and believes the exposure to international cricket will help her become a better player.

Annerie Dercksen is one of South Africa’s most promising youngsters and climbing the cricketing ladder.

Star from Beaufort West

This second-year Education student from the University of the Free State (UFS), who dreams of playing for the Momentum Proteas, represented the South African Emerging Women’s team three times in 2021.

The star from Beaufort West toured with the side to Bangladesh and also played against Zimbabwe and Thailand in One Day and T20 matches.

According to Dercksen, it is an incredible honour and privilege to be a part of a side.

She soaked up the experience and says everyone was willing to share their knowledge.

“I would have to say, sharing the field with some of my heroes and getting to work with some of the best coaches in the country are some of the highlights.”

She says each tour brought its own challenges and this helped her grow in the way she views and approaches the game.

“In Bangladesh we played against a well-established team in foreign conditions while facing a lot of spinners in spin friendly conditions. Personally, it was quite a challenge and I had to come back and work on some options, especially against spin.”

“Each tour brought its own challenges and this helped me grow in the way I view and approach the game.” - Annerie Dercksen

Coming through the ranks

The all-rounder has come through the ranks. She represented South-Western Districts at school level, played for the South African U19 side and is currently representing the Free State.

But Dercksen didn’t always dream cricket, especially not when playing ‘backyard’ cricket with her brother on the farm.

She didn’t even play for a team at school. “Until a boy from our primary school’s team got sick before a game. A teacher came to class and asked, ‘who can play cricket’, and I put up my hand.”

News Archive

UFS Council adopts guidelines for the development of a new Language Policy

2015-12-04

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) adopted the following guidelines from the report by the Language Committee regarding the development of a new Language Policy for the UFS, based on the core values of inclusivity and multilingualism:

that English becomes the primary medium of instruction in undergraduate education and, as largely exists already, in postgraduate education.
that the UFS embeds and enables a language-rich environment committed to multilingualism, with particular attention to Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu, and other languages represented on the three campuses.
that an expanded tutorial system be available to especially first-year students in Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu and other languages, in order to facilitate the transition to English instruction.
that the parallel-medium policy continues in particular professional programmes, given the well-defined Afrikaans markets that, at the moment, still makes such language-specific graduate preparation relevant.
that the language of administration be English.
that the English-medium language policy be implemented with flexibility and understanding, rather than as a rigid rule disregarding the circumstances.

These guidelines were adopted at the Council meeting which took place on the Bloemfontein Campus on Friday 4 December 2015.

“This important and emotive matter was discussed in a high-quality, open debate and I am satisfied with the way the decision was reached,” says Judge Ian van der Merwe, Chairperson of the UFS Council.

The decision by Council comes after a mandate was given to the University Management on 4 June 2015 to conduct a review of the institutional Language Policy. A Language Committee was subsequently established by the University Management Committee (UMC) to undertake a comprehensive review of the existing parallel-medium policy and to make recommendations on the way forward with respect to the university's Language Policy.

The Language Committee conducted a comprehensive consultation process on the future of the Language Policy with all university stakeholders. This included multiple dialogue and submissions sessions, as well as an opinion poll on all three campuses.

Guided by the Council resolution of 4 December 2015, the UFS management will now proceed to design a Language Policy that would be presented to the UMC and Senate for voting purposes again, which vote would be formally presented to Council at one of its governance meetings in 2016. The Institutional Forum, a statutory body that represents all university stakeholders, would also advise Council at that stage, per its mandate, on the new Language Policy.

In the event that a new Language Policy is accepted by Council in 2016, the earliest possible date for implementation would be January 2017.

http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6567 (26 November 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6540 (28 October 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6521 (20 October 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6469 (30 August 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6444 (25 August 2015)

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