The 2nd Vice-Chancellors Consultation Colloquium on the revised Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions
The second Vice-Chancellors’ Consultation Colloquium on the revised Language Policy for Higher Education will take place from 1 to 2 December 2022. It will be hosted in a hybrid format from the University of Pretoria’s Senate Hall on the main (Hatfield) Campus.
The first consultative session, held from 28 to 29 September 2021, brought together key stakeholders in public universities, language experts, members of the judiciary, representatives from the departments of Higher Education and Training, Science and Innovation, Basic Education and the statutory bodies such as the Pan South African Language Board. Deliberations dissected and facilitated understanding on the philosophical assumptions of the new language policy framework and its implications on higher education institutions. Ultimately, stakeholders converged on the view that various resources need to be harnessed and deployed for the successful implementation of the Language Policy Framework.
The 2022 colloquium, themed Moving the Conversation Forward, seeks to consolidate and advance the conversation on promoting South Africa’s indigenous languages by asking difficult questions that will ultimately unlock the required resources to achieve the full implementation of multilingualism in higher education. This is the desired goal of the new language policy framework. The colloquium will articulate and define a whole gamut of resources required, ranging from the enabling instruments such as institutional language policies, implementation frameworks and a DHET-driven capacity grant, as well as infrastructure ranging from institutional language directorates to a shared national resource infrastructure network.
The two-day meeting will attract Vice-Chancellors, Deputy Vice-Chancellors responsible for Teaching and Learning, representatives of student bodies, language experts drawn from USAf’s CoPAL, targeted members of the judiciary, senior officials from relevant government departments as well as senior representatives of the Pan South African Language Board.