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A partnership to boost isiZulu and Sesotho has been penned

11 November 2022 | Story Edzani Nephalela and Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane | Photo iStock

The UFS and UKZN have formalised an agreement on a Language Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance the development of the Sesotho and IsiZulu as academic languages.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has forged an exciting new partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) to promote the two provinces’ most widely spoken languages, Sesotho and IsiZulu.

This historic collaboration will see these institutions employing their skills, expertise, and resources to advance the development of the Sesotho and IsiZulu as academic languages through the development of terminology for various disciplines and research collaborations among other activities.

The UFS formalised the agreement by signing a Language Collaboration Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UKZN. The MOU process, facilitated by Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane, Director of the UFS Academy for Multilingualism, and Nikile Ntsababa, UFS Registrar, was sealed by Dr Engela Van Staden, UFS Vice-Rector: Academic.

The objectives of the collaboration are to:

• allow the UFS open access to all the UKZN isiZulu materials and UKZN open access to all UFS Sesotho language terminology, corpus materials, terminology banks, and applications for various disciplines;

• develop the Sesotho terminology for various disciplines;

• assist in identifying and closing any gaps in the UFS’s development of isiZulu terminology and in the UKZN’s development of isiZulu, and further develop the relevant language terminology of various disciplines in order to fill any existing gaps;

• share expertise through hosting webinars, seminars, colloquia, and workshops on Sesotho and isiZulu terminology development;

• explore research opportunities regarding the development of Sesotho and isiZulu terminology for various disciplines; and

• share expertise and resources in all human language technology development initiatives.

“The UKZN has championed the intellectualisation of IsiZulu over the years. We do not want to reinvent the wheel,” Dr Ngubane said. “Our focus now is on the acceleration of the development of Sesotho. Our vision and mission is to be the hub for the advancement of Sesotho at regional, national, and international levels. Collaboration with UKZN is instrumental in achieving this mandate.”

The Academy for Multilingualism said it considers this collaboration historic and groundbreaking because resources will now be invested in the development of Sesotho.

News Archive

UFS101 prepares new students for life

2012-03-07

7 March 2012

A new core curriculum module, UFS101, was launched in the Callie Human Centre at our Bloemfontein Campus on Monday 27 February 2012.

“We want to give you an education and not just a degree,” Prof. Jonathan Jansen, UFS Vice-Chancellor and Rector, said to the students in his opening address at the launch.

UFS101 is aimed at creating the next generation of citizens and young academics to stand out amongst other graduates in South Africa.

Implicit in the design of UFS101 is the development of engaged scholarship amongst UFS graduates. The curriculum also provides support for under-prepared students, while giving stronger students access to additional stimulation.

The module consists of seven units. Each unit comprises two lectures with either a learning experience or tutorial for each unit. In select cases both are used. Two units are presented in the first semester and five units in the second semester.

UFS101 also exposes students to provocative questions aimed at disrupting existing knowledge and ways of thinking by engaging them in some of the “big issues” across different disciplines, namely:

How do we deal with our violent past?
What does it mean to be fair?
What did God really say?
How small is small?
Why is the financial crisis described as ‘global’?
How do we become South Africans?

UFS 101 is a prerequisite for the completion of a qualification and students will earn an additional 16 credits over and above the minimum number of credits required for the completion of their qualification.

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