MA Translation and Interpreting
University of Surrey
Key Information
Campus location
Guildford, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 - 2 year
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 21,500 / per year *
Application deadline
01 Jul 2024
Earliest start date
Sep 2024
* for overseas students| for full-time UK students: £10,400| part-time UK students: £5,200; overseas students: £10,000
Introduction
Why Choose This Course
The growing complexity of international communication requires professionals with skills in both translation and interpreting. This course is one of the few in the UK to give you the expertise needed to perform both tasks professionally.
Our program has a strong practical component to suit the needs of the translation and interpreting market today, enabling you to develop a professional CV as you study. We’re one of the UK’s top translation and interpreting research centres, with more than three decades of experience in postgraduate education and research training.
We focus on exciting and newly developing areas of the discipline, such as translation and interpreting technologies, distance/remote interpreting, hybrid modalities of interpreting, machine translation, translation process research, translation as intercultural mediation, corpus-based translation, audiovisual translation, and multi-modality studies.
The Centre for Translation Studies (CTS) has developed an ambitious new research program on the responsible integration of human and automated approaches to translation and interpreting. This program informs our teaching and future-proofs your career in this evolving industry.
What You Will Study
Our internationally recognized MA combines translation and interpreting studies with a strong focus on technology. This allows graduates to meet the demands of the global market and current challenges for the language industry and work environment.
We offer Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish paired with English (languages subject to availability and/or demand). Other languages may be available upon request, subject to a minimum number of students.
You'll develop skills in translation and interpreting (consecutive, dialogue interpreting, and sight translation), delivered on-site and remotely via audio/video link. Lectures enable you to understand, discuss, and justify translation and interpreting-related decisions.
Practical modules are taught by experienced professional interpreters and translators, simulating realistic scenarios and covering a variety of specialisms (e.g. business, legal, scientific, technical, and medical domains). Our range of optional modules will focus on the creative, technological, business, and research dimensions of translation and interpreting, allowing you to customize your learning experience according to your strengths, personal tastes, and career ambitions.
To conclude your MA, you can choose between a topic-based dissertation, an extended translation/interpreting project and analytical commentary, or a work placement plus a critical report.
During your studies, you will have an opportunity to demonstrate academic and professional excellence by winning prizes. These include the following:
- RWS Campus Top Student Award (two Trados licenses)
- Project management training (one free-of-charge place in the Pro PM Training and Certification Program)
- Professional Engagement Portfolio Prize
- Best Dissertation in Translation and Interpreting Prize.
Professional Development
Our course is designed to help you develop the linguistic, translation and interpreting, technological, business, interpersonal, and soft skills needed for a successful career in the language services industry.
You will enjoy regular contact with professional translators and interpreters in your practice-based modules and gain advanced knowledge of how technologies are shaping up the translation and interpreting industry. You’ll benefit from course components that emphasize the business aspects of the translation and interpreting profession.
You will have invaluable opportunities to further hone your translation and interpreting skills and strategies in real-life working environments. For example, our students have recently provided interpreting services for various multilingual events held at the University of Surrey, such as workshops and graduation ceremonies. They have also refined their skills by participating in a remote interpreting summer school and have developed projects with the local community, such as Watts Gallery or the Guildford Walking Tours.
You will gain further insights into the industry from the external guest speakers we invite to the Centre for Translation Studies seminars and workshops, such as:
- Professional translators and interpreters
- Subtitlers and audio describers
- Professionals working in public services, companies, and international organizations
- Representatives of professional translator and interpreter associations
- Translation and interpreting researchers.
These opportunities will prepare you to begin work as a freelancer or as a language service provider at an international organization,, government body, university or private company. You will receive guidance on the development of a professional engagement portfolio to help you build a professional CV as you study. This involves documenting work placements and other collaborations with language services providers, and extra-curricular activities, such as joining a professional body, attending professional development workshops and webinars, and participating in projects with the local community.
Admissions
Curriculum
Academic Year Structure
The MA Translation and Interpreting course is studied over one year (full-time) or two years (part-time). The taught part of the program is divided into eight 15-credit modules. A 15-credit module is indicative of 150 hours of learning. The hours of learning comprise contact hours, guided learning, and private study.
The MA Translation and Interpreting course has five compulsory modules, and you must select another three optional modules.
Our varied offer of optional modules will enable you to tailor the program to your strengths and preferences. If you are a full-time student, you will take the language-specific modules Professional Translation Practice I and Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting I and the lecture Principles and Challenges of Translation and Interpreting in Semester 1, and Professional Translation Practice II and Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting II in Semester 2. You will normally take one of your optional modules in Semester 1, and two in Semester 2.
If you choose to study part-time, you will take the language-specific compulsory modules Professional Translation Practice I and II and Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting I and II in the first year, and the Principles and Challenges of Translation compulsory module in the second year. You can distribute your optional modules flexibly over two years.
You will complete your degree with a Translation and Interpreting Studies Dissertation (60 credits), to be submitted at the beginning of September.
Modules
Modules listed are indicative, reflecting the information available at the time of publication. Please note that modules may be subject to teaching availability, student demand, and/or class size caps.
The University operates a credit framework for all taught programs based on a 15-credit tariff. Modules can be either 15, 30, 45, 75, or 120 credits, and additionally for some masters dissertations, 90 credits.
The structure of our programs follows clear educational aims that are tailored to each program. These are all outlined in the program specifications which include further details such as the learning outcomes:
Year 1
Full-time
- Academic Research Methods
- Consecutive And Dialogue Interpreting (Additional Language) I
- Consecutive And Dialogue Interpreting I
- Principles And Challenges of Translation And Interpreting
- Professional Translation Practice I
- Translation As Human-Computer Interaction
- Writing And Rewriting For Translators
- Business And Management in Translation
- Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting (Additional Language) II
- Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting II
- Hybrid Practices For Live Speech-To-Text Communication
- Interpreting And Technologies
- Professional Translation Practice II
- Public Service Interpreting- Trends And Issues
- Smart Technologies For Translation
- Translation For Creative Industries
- Translation And Interpreting Studies Dissertation
Part-time
- Academic Research Methods
- Consecutive And Dialogue Interpreting (Additional Language) I
- Consecutive And Dialogue Interpreting I
- Principles And Challenges of Translation And Interpreting
- Professional Translation Practice I
- Translation As Human-Computer Interaction
- Writing And Rewriting For Translators
- Business And Management in Translation
- Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting (Additional Language) II
- Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting II
- Hybrid Practices For Live Speech-To-Text Communication
- Interpreting And Technologies
- Professional Translation Practice II
- Public Service Interpreting- Trends And Issues
- Smart Technologies For Translation
- Translation For Creative Industries
Year 2
Part-time
- Academic Research Methods
- Consecutive And Dialogue Interpreting (Additional Language) I
- Consecutive And Dialogue Interpreting I
- Principles And Challenges of Translation And Interpreting
- Professional Translation Practice I
- Translation As Human-Computer Interaction
- Writing And Rewriting For Translators
- Business And Management in Translation
- Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting (Additional Language) II
- Consecutive and Dialogue Interpreting II
- Hybrid Practices For Live Speech-To-Text Communication
- Interpreting And Technologies
- Professional Translation Practice II
- Public Service Interpreting- Trends And Issues
- Smart Technologies For Translation
- Translation For Creative Industries
- Translation And Interpreting Studies Dissertation
Timetable
Course timetables are normally available one month before the start of the semester.
Please note that while we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, scheduled teaching can take place on any day of the week (Monday – Friday). Wednesday afternoons are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities. The part-time timetable is based on the full-time one, so classes will run on any teaching day.
Translation Studies seminars take place on Wednesday afternoons – attendance is optional but strongly encouraged.
Please note that our practice-based classes are normally provided by professional interpreters and we may sometimes have to reschedule classes to accommodate professional commitments.
Career Opportunities
We offer career information, advice, and guidance to all students whilst studying with us, which is extended to our alumni for three years after leaving the University.
91 percent of our School of Literature and Languages postgraduate students go on to employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2023, HESA).
The language services industry continues to grow despite a challenging international economic climate. Globalization and technological innovation open up new markets and create novel demands for multilingual translation and interpreting services to exchange knowledge and communicate with clients. As an MA Translation and Interpreting graduate and qualified language professional, you’ll be able to take advantage of global employment opportunities.
To help our students further with work opportunities in the language services industry, we host an annual careers fair where local and international companies with an active interest in Surrey graduates come to the Centre for Translation Studies to meet our students. They explain their current and future job opportunities, providing a chance for you to engage with them directly and kick-start your career in an informal, friendly atmosphere.
Our emphasis on professional development means that you will be well-equipped to begin work as a freelance or in-house translator or interpreter in a variety of settings (private marker, governmental bodies, public services), as a project manager for business, international organizations and public bodies, multilingual content writers, language-service managers, localization, terminology, transcreation specialists, language and translation tutors.
Technological innovation is also rapidly reshaping the interpreting industry, opening up new research opportunities. The Translation and Interpreting Studies dissertation enables you to consolidate the knowledge and skills acquired during the taught components of the program and guides you along the identification and selection of an appropriate research topic or project. It is also one of the many ways of getting involved in ongoing research at the Centre for Translation Studies. We regularly have students who decide to stay on and study for a PhD to pursue an academic career in this exciting field. For further information, see our PhD course.
Facilities
Program Tuition Fee
English Language Requirements
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