ABSTRACT
The work of universities is fundamentally mediated by language and there has been growing interest in how universities plan their language use (e.g. Barrault-Méthy, 2012; Bull, 2012; Cots Josep, Lasagabaster, & Garrett, 2012; Gill, 2006; Källkvist & Hult, 2016; Pereira, 2013). The focus on universities as language-planning actors represents a focus on the ways that language is planned at the meso- and micro-levels (Baldauf, 2005, 2006; Kaplan & Baldauf, 1997) as universities as institutions can be conceptualised as language-planning actors at a number of levels. They may be seen as micro-level actors, implementing macro-level policy locally or they may be seen as meso-level actors, standing between the macro-level and the micro-level made up of individuals or groups of academic and/or administrative staff or students. The emerging focus on universities as language-planning actors, at whichever level, reflects a move by universities in many parts of the world to develop more explicit language policies in response to a changing language context. These policies have variously responded to the ways the academy uses languages for teaching and learning, for creating and disseminating knowledge through research and for administration. These issues form the focus for the papers in this volume.
