Role and Objectives

REGULATORY AGREEMENT of 17th December 1999 whereby the University of the Balearic Islands Language Service was created

Background

The Language Service was created in 1983 under the name Linguistic Normalisation Service of the University of the Balearic Islands. It was initially a translation and editing service for the administration services at the university and the Publications Service; it also ran the Catalan language courses for civil service and other staff members at the university from the 1981-82 academic year onwards. The Service reported directly to the Office of the Rector until 1987, when the Office of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs took over supervisory responsibility. The Service then progressively took on responsibilities for promoting the use of Catalan at the UIB.

The Governmental Terminology Unit merged with the Language Service in the 1991-92 academic year by way of a collaboration agreement signed by the University of the Balearic Islands and the Department of Education, Culture and Sports of the Balearic Government on 21st December.

The Language Service of the University of the Balearic Islands was created on 7th March 1995 (FOU No. 106), following on from the Linguistic Normalisation Service, with the explicit aims of taking charge of the linguistic normalisation of Catalan at the university and providing support for the language consultancy service role of the UIB in accordance with the Balearic Islands Statute of Regional Autonomy.

The University of the Balearic Islands Onomastics Unit was created based on the extended agreement signed with the Department of Education and Culture of the Balearic Islands, being fully incorporated into the UIB Language Service.

The University of the Balearic Islands Modern Languages Service was created in 1998 (FOU No. 146) with the aims of supporting university students to learn languages, participating in the UIB Academic (PDI) and Administration (PAS) staff training plans, and providing translation services for scientific, academic and institutional documents.

The Modern Languages Service and Language Service were merged in 1999 to cover both areas. This resulted in the current Language Service (FOU No. 173) which, at the time, reported to the Office of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for University Extension Services and Cultural Activities.

The University of the Balearic Islands Language Didactics Unit was created in 2006 and incorporated into the UIB Language Service, based on the extended agreement signed with the Department of Education and Culture of the Government of the Balearic Islands.

The Didactics Unit separated from the Language Service in the 2011-12 academic year and its bibliographic collection can now be found at the library in the Guillem Cifre de Colonya building.

Today, the Language Service reports directly to the Office of the Rector.

Objectives

The UIB Language Service's objectives are:

1. To be responsible for Catalan linguistic normalisation at the University of the Balearic Islands.

2. To provide support to the language consultancy and advice service at the UIB in accordance with the Balearic Islands Statute of Regional Autonomy.

3. To provide university staff and students with the necessary training in Catalan and modern languages, and to participate in the language training plans developed by the university.

4. To ensure language quality in university activities, provide translations of scientific, academic and institutional documents, and generally deal with any language requirement that may arise during daily university activities.