Director: Language Planning and Development
Position summary
Introduction
Job description
The Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning) seeks to appoint a dynamic and energetic Professor or Associate Professor to provide strategic leadership and guidance at an institutional level on all matters related to language policy, planning and development in the University. The successful candidate must have strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies and diverse communities, both inside and outside the University. The Director will be expected to strategically lead and manage the University’s Language Planning and Development Office in implementing and advancing UKZN's language policy, promoting multilingualism, developing African Languages as an academic language, providing language support services including translation and editing, conducting language research including computational linguistics, and ensuring that language transformation contributes to academic excellence, accessibility, and social justice across the institution. To lead the development of strategy in relation to language policy and development. The role includes promoting academic collaborations related to language development.
Minimum requirements
- Associate Professor
- Doctoral Degree in Languages/Linguistics or related area
- Evidence of specialisation in IsiZulu and English
- Evidence of experience in Bilingual/Multilingual education, especially in higher education
- Evidence of recent and relevant knowledge of Language Policy and Planning and/or Language terminology development and translation preferably related to isiZulu
- Track record of publications commensurate with the level of appointment in language related research, preferably including isiZulu
ADVANTAGES:
- NRF rating or research recognition in linguistics or language studies
- Additional South African languages (highly advantageous)
- Knowledge of computational linguistics and language technologies
- Experience with corpus building and linguistic databases
- Membership in professional language associations
- Experience with language advocacy and policy development
The closing date for receipt of applications is 17 November 2026
Short-listed candidates may be expected to do a presentation on a specific topic.
All applicants are required to apply online on Career Portal, https://ukzn.ci.hr/applicant/index.php.
Kindly note that the University of KwaZulu-Natal (“the University”) is required to process any Personal Information (as defined by the Protection of Personal Act, 2013 “POPIA”) submitted by candidates when applying for positions at the University. The provision of the Personal Information is a requirement in terms of the University’s recruitment and selection process. The retention of any personal information is as a consequence of the University being bound by legislative requirements and / or good governance practices as well as record keeping for statistical purposes. The University will endeavour to ensure that the appropriate security measures are in place and implemented for both electronic and paper-based formats that are used for processing of the personal information recorded through this recruitment and selection process.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is committed to meeting the objectives of Employment Equity to improve representivity within the Institution. Preference will be given to applicants from designated groups in accordance with our Employment Equity Plan.
- Please do not send us copies of your degree and other certificates. We will request certified copies if you are short listed for interview.
- Please read the advertisement carefully. We do not consider applicants who do not meet the minimum requirements.
- The University is committed to Employment Equity.
- The University reserves the right not to fill a vacancy.
- Should you not hear from us within six weeks of the closing date, please assume you are unsuccessful
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