The first draft of the revised language policy for Stellenbosch University (SU) was released for public consultation on 20 March 2021.
“The first public participation period starts on 20 March and closes on 12 April 2021,” said Professor Deresh Ramjugernath, deputy vice-chancellor of learning and teaching at SU, in general email communication to the university community on 19 March.
All responses received during the participation period will be collected and a response report will be compiled by the Language Revision Task Team, said Martin Viljoen, SU Spokesperson.
“All submissions will be considered, but it may not be possible to include all comments in the second draft of the revised Language Policy (2016) that will be made available for further input in the second semester of the year,” said Viljoen.
The existing language policy, which was approved in 2016, was due to be revised this year as part of a five-year cycle for language policy revisions, according to a statement issued by SU on 8 March.
Section 6.1 of the revised policy stated that “individual and societal multilingualism should be seen as ‘a resource to facilitate cognitive development, epistemic access, inclusiveness, transformation, social cohesion and respect for all languages’”. This statement, which was not present in the language policy issued in 2016, aligned with the Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions (2020), according to the revised language policy.
In the revised policy, SU stated its “institutional commitment” to Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa speakers.
“A language can’t lose its cultural value just because a university wants to be inclusive with its language policy. Afrikaans will continue being spoken outside of varsity lecture halls. It won’t die,” said a current masters student in political science at SU, who chose to remain anonymous to avoid conflict.
There was an increase in the enrolment of students with English or isiXhosa (see infographic) as their home language, and a decrease in the enrolment of students with Afrikaans as their home language, between 2017 and 2020, according to the student enrolment overview issued by SU Information Governance.
Infographic displaying the percentage change in the number of Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa students that enrolled at Stellenbosch University between 2017 and 2020. INFOGRAPHIC: Caitlin Maledo
“Distribution [by home language] refers to the percentage that each home language forms of all the student enrolments in a given year,” said Loumarie Kistner, a data analyst from the Centre for Business Intelligence at SU.
To participate in the public consultation of the revised policy, follow this link.
Stellenbosch University Language Centre handles learning and teaching at the university. It plays an integral role in engaging with multilingualism in education. PHOTO: Caitlin Maledo