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16 March 2021
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All academic activities have been suspended on all UFS campuses from 17 to 22 March 2021. No online/face-to-face lectures/tests/assignments will take place until 23 March 2021, and the full academic programme will resume on this date.
This decision will allow the university management an opportunity to address outstanding matters regarding the admission of senior undergraduate students.
Administrative activities will continue during this time and the campuses are not closed. The university management is aware that sporadic disruptions of activities by small groups are still taking place on the Bloemfontein Campus.
Protection Services, with the assistance of private security, remains on high alert and is closely monitoring the situation on the campuses. The necessary safety and security plan, as well as contingency plans, are in place.
Please monitor the university’s communication platforms for updates on any developments.
It is important to ensure that your cellphone number is updated in order to receive communication via the KovsieApp and SMS.
Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Marketing)
Telephone: +27 51 401 2584 | +27 83 645 2454
Email: news@ufs.ac.za | loaderl@ufs.ac.za
Fax: +27 51 444 6393
Universities join hands in developing literacy tests
2010-03-19
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At the signing ceremony, from the left, are: Prof. Driekie Hay (Vice-Rector: Teaching and Learning), Prof. Albert Weideman (Head: Department of English) and Prof. Lucius Botes (Dean: Faculty of the Humanities).
Photo: Supplied |
The development of academic literacy tests recently took a step into the future with the formal establishment of the Inter-institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA).
ICELDA, under its first executive head, Prof. Albert Weideman, Head of the Department of English at the University of the Free State (UFS), is a cooperative venture between the multilingual Universities of Pretoria, North-West, Stellenbosch and the Free State.
It is dedicated to the development of reliable state-of-the-art academic literacy tests and currently makes 32 000 tests available to partnering universities annually.
Most notably, it has produced three of the most reliable academic literacy tests in the country. These include an Academic Listening Test and the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) for undergraduate students, with reliability levels that are more than 20% above international benchmarks.
“We are even more excited about our Test of Academic Literacy for Postgraduate Students (TALPS), which is already a crucial instrument in determining the literacy levels of postgraduate students at the Universities of the Free State, Pretoria and North-West,” said Prof. Weideman.
In addition, ICELDA is currently piloting studies for language tests for financial advisors, nurses, students of disaster management, as well as police studies at Unisa.
ICELDA will also collaborate with the Centre for English Language Communication (CELC) at the National University of Singapore.
“One of the undertakings I made on my visit to Singapore a year ago was that I would assist in every way I could with the building of joint expertise with CELC in language testing,” said Prof. Weideman.
“However, our focus will remain firmly on research.”
He said his goal was to employ the surpluses generated by selling tests to provide promising students with bursaries to stimulate further study and design of academic literacy and other language tests.
By drawing more researchers into the field, Weideman said, ICELDA could provide the capacity for developing reliable language tests that South Africa had always lacked.
Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
19 March 2010