Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
05 May 2023
|
Story EDZANI NEPHALELA
|
Photo Supplied
![]()
This audit process will assess the resources available and required for the implementation of a Language policy framework for higher education (2020) – such as the development of multilingual terminologies, translation services for teaching and learning materials, campus signage, as well as various multimedia collateral – including their quality and relevance to the needs of the students and faculty. The audit will include an assessment of existing resources and whether they are furthering implementation goals, and may also include the gathering of feedback from students and faculty to identify improvement areas.
Dr Nomalungelo Ngubane, Director of the UFS Academy for Multilingualism, said the process will help the UFS identify the essential languages resources that are available for the successful implementation of the 2020 Language Policy for Higher Education framework (LPHE). “The audit will identify how much has been done at the UFS and which institutions we can collaborate with, for example, in the development of Sesotho, so that we do not reinvent the wheel, but we close the gaps.”
Once the audit is completed, the institution will develop a plan for resource allocation to address the identified gaps. This may involve acquiring new resources, upgrading existing ones, or reallocating existing resources better to meet the needs of students, staff, and faculties.
Due to the impact this audit will have on various stakeholders, all staff and students are encouraged to participate. To attend the audit, please RSVP here by 30 May 2023.
Ecofeminism a possibe solution to impending famine
2016-05-12
Dr Inge Konik (right) is pictured with her postdoctoral supervisor, Prof Bert Olivier, Senior Research Professor at the Department of Philosophy.
Photo: Valentino Ndaba |
In view of the environmental and social problems faced in South Africa today, researchers such as Dr Inge Konik are hard at work mapping these issues and seeking long-term solutions. Dr Konik, a lecturer in the Department of Journalism, Media and Philosophy at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) shared her views in a presentation on 6 May 2016. She spoke about revaluing indigenous ways of life and subsistence-focused lifeways, linking this to materialist ecological feminism, or ecofeminism for short.
Dr. Konik’s presentation, hosted by the Department of Philosophy at the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), was entitled: “Transversal reflections on ecological feminism and ubuntu.” The research underpinning the presentation derived from Dr Konik’s doctoral thesis which was supervised by Ariel Salleh (University of Sydney) and Andrea Hurst (NMMU).
Dr Konik’s research suggests that ecofeminism - which is a convergence between environmentalism and feminism - may hold the answers to the question of how we may work against environmental and social injustices. She also proposed that society look back toward subsistence communities of the past, and those currently being marginalized in our industrial societies, and linked the values evidenced in the practices of these communities to the African philosophty of ubuntu. In order to solve complex contemporary challenges Dr Konik suggests that we combine these seemingly disparate theoretical frames - ubuntu and ecofeminism - by applying a transversal approach, which involves openness to dialogue between traditions.
“My focus was on ecological feminism and critical theory and very specifically on South Africa, given the challeges South Africa faces - the environmental and social challenges and what kind of frameworks would be helpful,” said Dr Konik, who will officially become a postdoctoral research fellow at the department as of July 2016.
Prof Pieter Duvenage, Head of the Departement, stated that compelling research outputs are anticipated from Dr Konik as a fellow.