Language Policy Evaluation and Review at the University of the Free State

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of an archival study of language policy review at the University of the Free State (UFS). Factors prompting a review came to the fore after unfavourable external evaluations of the institutional language policy were made public in two reports released in 2008. Since policy evaluation usually corresponds to policy review, the question probed in this article concerns how the UFS has responded to the findings from these reports at policy level, and how it has accommodated two further change factors, namely the drastically changed demographic profile of the student body and the new strategic direction heralded by a new university management. The study documents and analyses evidence of language policy review at the UFS up until an April 2015 university assembly, at which the 2003 language policy was declared inappropriate to aid transformation, whereafter it was decided to undertake a formal review.

Keywords:

• language policy review
• language policy evaluation
• language policy in higher education
• language policy continuity
• language politics