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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

More international recognition for Vice-Chancellor

2013-09-27

27 September 2013

Two international awards will be bestowed on Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), in the coming months for his dedication to Education.

These awards will add to the multiple international and local achievements and awards Prof Jansen has received this year.

He will join the ranks of laureates of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) during the organisation’s 49^th Biennial Conference in Dallas, Texas, from 24 to 26 October 2013. KDP is an international honour society in education, founded by Dr William Bagley at the University of Illinois in 1911. It was established to foster excellence in education and promote fellowship among those dedicated to teaching. KDP comprises 600 chapters and more than 40 000 members.

On 18 May 2014, the University of Vermont in the USA will confer an honorary doctorate on Prof Jansen for his passionate leadership in higher education and his contributions as scholar to benefit students across the world.

In June 2013, Prof Jansen received the Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa in New York at a joint function of Education Africa and Brand South Africa. He joined a list of recipients including Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Richard Branson and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. The Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa is a highly-regarded recognition on the world stage, awarded to individuals who focus the attention of the global community on the obstacles some of the poorest African nations face.

The University of California in the USA awarded him the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. The award is made in recognition of persons who exemplify in their work the delivery of social justice, diplomacy and tolerance in the diverse local and global society.

Also in the United States, Prof Jansen has been invited to be Messenger Lecturer for Fall 2013 at Cornell University. He will give three lectures and interact with the students and staff of Cornell at various functions.

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