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12 May 2021
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The University of the Free State (UFS) was among the 13 South African universities that recently featured in the 2021-2022 list of the top 2 000 universities compiled by the
Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR).
In recent years, the UFS has progressively improved its ranking and has overtaken the University of the Western Cape to be ranked eight, after being ninth during 2020. This is the only change in the
South African university rankings for 2021/2022.
The CWUR grades universities on four factors without relying on surveys and university data submissions: quality of education (25%), alumni employment (25%), quality of faculty (10%), and research performance (40%). This year, 19 788 institutions were ranked, and those placed at the top made the global 2 000 list.
“This is a significant achievement, and I am proud that the UFS could rise in the rankings. The CWUR is the largest academic ranking of global universities; we will continue working towards achieving an even greater result next year,” said Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.
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The three campuses of the University of the Free State.
UFS shares expertise in Sign Language
2009-05-07
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The University of the Free State (UFS) is continuing in its commitment to reach out to other universities on the African continent. Mr Philemon Akach (pictured), a senior lecturer in the Department of Afro-Asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice, recently visited the University of Ghana to share his expertise and assist in the introduction of the Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL) as an academic course in that institution. The course will first be piloted as an “elective course” and if successful it will be a permanent feature of the University of Ghana's calendar.
Mr Akach has been instrumental in the development of GSL since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sent him on a fact-finding mission regarding the education of deaf children in Ghana in 1993. Since then he has trained interpreters as well as parents and teachers of deaf children in Ghana in using the South African Sign Language multimedia grammar teaching materials. He has also guided the GSL Dictionary Project. The University of Ghana will use his books as the basis for the teaching of the GSL. This session was a follow-up to the one he had with that university in February this year.
The UFS is widely regarded as a beacon of light in the teaching of sign language on the continent and, together with the University of Witwatersrand, are the only universities in South Africa that offer sign language as an academic course.
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe |