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

First awards ceremony for tutors held at the UFS
2007-11-08

 

The Department of Student Development and Success at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently presented a New Academic Tutorial Programme (NATP) Awards evening to thank the 44 student academic tutors on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein for their work during the year. The tutors were also evaluated based on feedback from the students they tutored during the year. Marius Shardelow, student tutor in the Centre for Accounting in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences was named as the best tutor. He received an evaluation score of 95,5%. The Faculties of Health Sciences, Economic and Management Sciences, Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Humanities participated in the NATP programme. It was the first time in the history of the UFS that such a function was held to acknowledge the student tutors for their hard work. At the NATP Awards evening were, from the left: Dr Francois Strydom (Director of Student Development and Success at the UFS), Mr Xcy Rathaba (Tutorials programme manager and co-ordinator at the UFS), Prof. Tienie Crous, (Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the UFS), Marius Shardelow (winner of the NATP Awards), and Dr Ezekiel Moraka (Vice-Rector of Student Affairs at the UFS).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs
 

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