In view of this, the University of Pretoria (UP) will be signing a Cooperation Protocol with the Camoes Institute in Portugal. The protocol makes provision for:

• The secondment of a lecturer from Portugal for Portuguese language and Portuguese teacher training at UP by 2013;
• The financial support for a second lecturer for Portuguese to be appointed by UP for 2014.

It is envisaged to implement Portuguese as major language in the BA programmes in the Faculty of Humanities as from 2014 and to offer Portuguese teacher training in the relevant degree programmes at the Faculty of Education as from 2015.

Although UP is planning to offer language courses to students without prior knowledge of the language, the Protocol is aimed at students who took Portuguese as Second Additional Language in Grade 12. In 2012, a total of 158 South African passed this examination.