The University of the Free State (UFS) welcomes Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane as the new Director of the Academy for Multilingualism. This follows her previous role as Senior Lecturer and Module Lead for Academic Literacy and Reasoning at the Nelson Mandela University Medical School.

With the academy established in 2021, Dr Ngubane’s main priority is to continue to promote multilingualism through various academic and community-based projects and initiatives, with particular emphasis on Sesotho, Afrikaans, and isiZulu.

“My role is to drive my team towards achieving the mandate set out by the academy,” she said. Other responsibilities include, “managing the development and implementation of multilingualism at the UFS through strategic projects and initiatives by collaborating with various university role players throughout all three campuses”, she explained.

Dr Ngubane expressed positivity when asked about her long-term vision for multilingualism at the UFS. “I would like to see the academy as a hub for the advancement and development of indigenous languages, not only at an institutional level, but at a national and global level," she stated. She also said that all students have the right to learn in the language they feel comfortable in. “If we can afford them that opportunity, it will promote good performance and, in a way, achieve social justice for those students,” she expressed. Furthermore, Dr Ngubane aims to provide equal status to all languages in our constitution, socially and academically. With that said, she also believes in promoting proficiency in English. "English remains the most widely spoken language in the world. We need to create that balance as much as possible while still promoting our indigenous languages," she stressed. Dr Ngubane envisions the academy as a leader for research on multilingualism and seeks to attract partnerships with national and international institutions. “We strive to establish a partnership with them through symposiums – and with those universities that have walked a mile in the implementation of multilingualism; we want to learn from them as well and share our own experiences. Financially, we're also pushing towards attracting funding to promote our mandate.”

The academy has a number of initiatives, such as the Kovsies Multilingual Mokete and the Initiative for Creative African Narratives (iCAN), which are used to promote multilingualism. “We will also be reviewing the UFS Language Policy to determine if we have any gaps in what we promised to implement.” In addition, “the university is constantly working on a multilingual glossary, where we work closely with several faculties to translate difficult terminology into indigenous languages for different subjects so students can understand complex concepts. This promotes access to knowledge and improves student excellence, especially for those from English second language backgrounds. We're also in close collaboration with the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) to implement trans-language tutorials across various disciplines”, she emphasised.

When asked how she would like to be viewed by the UFS community, she responded, “I would like to be viewed as a transformational leader, a team player, and a driving force of multilingualism.”