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UFS Institutional Audit process on track

17 February 2022 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)

The University of the Free State (UFS) has finalised the first part of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) Institutional Audit (IA), submitting its Institutional Self-Evaluation Report (SER) and Portfolio of Evidence (PoE) to the higher education quality assurance body.

According to Dr Engela van Staden, Vice-Rector: Academic, the second part of the institutional audit will involve the participation of relevant stakeholders in a site visit to the institution. During the visit, scheduled between 9 and 13 May 2022, an external panel of experts will systematically assess the submitted SER and requisite documents by asking inquisitive questions to interviewees who will be participating in this process.

“The focus will be on the quality of programme offerings with a view to improving student success in all spheres of the student walk – from registration to graduation. To this end, the university’s Integrated Quality Management Framework (IQMF) will be assessed in order to provide evidence that quality assurance is ingrained in the core functions of the UFS, i.e., student success; quality of teaching and research; and engaged scholarship.”

Dr Van Staden says by re-introducing the SER, the university will embark on a stakeholder engagement plan, engaging with staff in faculties, service units, directorates, centres, departments, or schools, to keep them informed and prepared for a productive contribution to the Institutional Audit process.

- The CHE is an independent statutory body established in terms of the provisions of the Higher Education Act No. 101 of 1997, as amended. It advises the Minister responsible for Higher Education and Training and is the national authority for quality assurance and promotion in higher education.

News Archive

Update on the Review of the Language Policy of the UFS

2015-11-26

On 5 June 2015, the Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) mandated Management to conduct a review of the Language Policy. The University Management Committee (UMC) then established a Language Committee 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 has now completed its work and the review report and its recommendations were presented to the UMC, the Executive Committee of Senate (ECS), as well as the full Senate. Each of these bodies debated the report and its recommendations and the views of these various structures will be presented to Council on 4 December 2015.

Council will study the report of the Language Committee and deliberate on the recommendations and views of these different university bodies ahead of, and at its December 2015 meeting. At that meeting, Council will then decide whether or not to accept the findings and recommendations of the Language Committee.

Should Council decide that - having reviewed the committee report - a new Language Policy must be developed, it would then mandate that such a policy should be designed and presented to itself as the highest decision-making authority of a university. In that case, the new Language Policy would have to be presented again to the UMC and Senate for voting purposes and that vote would be formally presented to Council at one of its meetings in 2016. The Institutional Forum, a statutory body that represents all university stakeholders, would also at that point advise Council, per its mandate, on a 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.

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