What kind of master's degrees can I do if I am studying translation and interpreting?

A master’s degree is an academic degree that can be pursued after completing an undergraduate degree. A Master in Translation is a good choice for those who are bilingual and want to make a career out of it.

What is a Master in Translation? This course of study is designed to prepare proficient bilingual and multilingual students to work as translators. Students build their technical, linguistic, and professional skills, and gain experience through internships. Translation programs vary, but most will combine classroom teaching and laboratory demonstration to build versatile communication skills. Students will learn computer applications, terminology, project management skills, and how to provide effective and accurate translations.

There are a number of benefits for those with a Master in Translation. It exposes students to a variety of cultures and people, and they are able to negotiate and create pathways of meaning between conflicting sides. Students learn how to engage politically, ethically, and creatively with different people.

As a master’s degree in translation is geared towards students from many countries, there are multiple programs offered around the world. The duration of the specific programs, as well as the location, results in various costs. To find out exactly how much your school costs, get in touch with the admission department directly.

A Master in Translation prepares students for a number of careers throughout the world. Graduates are proficient translators and interpreters, and there is a high demand for them in many different fields. Depending on your interests, a degree can lead to a career in law, politics, finances, government, management, literacy, business, or medicine.

For those with busy lives, thinking about earning a master’s degree may seem overwhelming. However, many schools now offer the ability to take the majority of classes online. This flexibility allows many more students to earn their degree on their own time schedule. Search for your program below and contact directly the admission office of the school of your choice by filling in the lead form.

M.Phil. in Literary Translation

There is widespread interest in literary translation as a form of literary study, and as a discipline that extends the reading and writing skills obtained in an Arts degree. Trinity College builds on its large and successful language teaching experience in creating a programme specifically designed for the production and study of literary translations.

The course brings together in an interdisciplinary framework, the expertise to create a unique programme for practitioners, future practitioners and students of the art of translation. The target language is English, but the following source languages are also available: French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Czech and Polish. Where requested, we will try to provide support in other languages. The programme is taught by experienced lecturers, several of whom have published translated books, and by guest translators. It features a seminar in which students present and discuss their own work.

A graduate of the course will be well equipped to undertake literary, cultural, academic or philosophical translation, and will be qualified for employment in any area demanding intercultural awareness and excellent writing and analytical skills. The aim is to each translation as an art, and to form professionals who will have learned to work in an ethos of mutual intellectual and linguistic exchange.

The M.Phil combines two core courses, which address theoretical, linguistic and practical issues common to all, or most translation situations. It also provides a selection of specialized options, which include courses on the practical issues of literary translation and the comparative approach.

A postgraduate degree in Translation Studies is of the highest value. Not only will it equip you with professional level translation skills in international dialogues, enabling you to play your part in developing a global community, it will also give you an opportunity to fine-tune your communication skills and awareness of the wide range of challenges and opportunities that arise every time intercultural dialogue occurs.

Recent research has shown that the fall in the number of language learners over the past decade has come at a big cost to the UK economy. While we may be able to continue to trade and to develop partnerships with countries, regions and companies whose first language is English, we’ve been cutting ourselves off from large swathes of the new markets emerging in East Asia, in Latin America, and in West Africa, to name but three regions. This trend has had an impact even at EU level, according to a recent CFA Skills report. The reasons for this recent decline in language learning are varied, but the tide is turning as Scottish and UK business and industry recognises the benefits of speaking the languages of truly global trade.

Course objectives

The Master’s in Translation Studies has a strong focus on practical translation and on specific situations in which people communicate with one another across different cultures. We offer the following languages: Chinese, French, German, Polish, Russian and Spanish (available subject to demand and availability).

The course provides extensive practical translation work on a theme or topic of your choice. It is structured so that you can have considerable flexibility in choosing what areas of translation you wish to specialise in, as you build up a portfolio of translations with your tutor. You may also choose to undertake an extended translation as part of your final dissertation and will be given an opportunity to examine some of the key topics in contemporary Translation Studies.

Students on the course also examine some major debates surrounding the opportunities and problems that arise when people from different cultures communicate and translate, through seminars led by experts in the field of intercultural communication. There will also be some opportunity for work-based study and exercises, as well as a chance to develop your skills using translation software packages.

If you wish to study for a PhD subsequently, you have the opportunity to demonstrate you have attained a level that prepares you for a higher research degree. For candidates of a suitable level, there is an opportunity to continue in Stirling with a practice-led doctorate involving translation.

Structure and content

Stirling’s MRes in Translation Studies has all the taught elements of an MSc course, while still retaining the flexibility of research-led learning and teaching. This established course has a number of features which will enhance your learning experience.

The teaching year follows the two semesters, which run from mid-September to late December, and from January to the end of May.

Portfolio of Translation: This module develops critical ability and autonomy in applying theories and approaches to different types of translation texts. It will also introduce students to the core translation theories, research methods and approaches in Translation Studies. After that, the students will develop, with their tutor, their own portfolio of practical translation exercises, relating to their own interests. The portfolio will consist of four pieces of translation, each approx. 500 words in length. Students will also discuss and comment on the issues arising in translating your portfolio in a commentary of around 1,250 words.

Terminology and Translation Project Management: This module focuses on introducing students to the theoretical framework of the disciplines of terminology and project management, familiarising them with the practice of terminological research and glossary compilation - both essential adjuncts to the work of a professional translator - and developing the students’ career awareness and enterprise skills.

Cultural Translation and Transfer: You will engage in seminar discussions with experts in the area of cultural translation and transfer, analysing the opportunities and problems that arise when information is communicated across cultures. You will be assessed by means of essays reflecting on a major topic of debate, as well as reports based on site visits to our partner institutions engaged in cultural translation.

Research Skills: Our innovative Arts Graduate Training modules enable students to build up a portfolio of skills that prepare them for academic and professional life. All graduate students will work with their supervisors to select what’s right for them from a menu of activities. For many of our students a key part of these modules involves participating in work placements and work experience with local businesses, museums and film festivals.

Translation with Computer Technology (option module) (subject to demand): This module trains students to apply their theoretical and conceptual background to a practical approach to translation and to address the significant and growing demand for basic skills in translation studies. The module will include translation corpora, terminology bank, machine translation (MT) and computer-aided translation (CAT) tools in the fields of translation memory (TM) management, translation project management, translation of documentation, and software localisation, to exploiting translation resources available on the internet and legacy translation data.

Specialised Translation (option module) (subject to demand): The module addresses the significant and growing demand for specialised translation within human situations and professional contexts, across different degrees of specialisation in a range of subject matters, including business, legal, medical, audiovisual, academic, journalistic, political, religious and cultural texts either from two languages into English or one language into and out of English, at a professional level.

Dissertation: Subject to successful completion of all elements of the assessment in both Semesters, you will choose one of the following as your dissertation project:

an extended piece of translation and related research and commentary based on it
a ‘traditional’ dissertation on a topic drawn from Translation Theories
a ‘traditional’ dissertation focusing on a topic drawn from the field of Cultural Translation
You are expected to begin collating materials during the Spring. The main writing period will follow on from the end of teaching in May, and all dissertations are submitted at the end of August.

Delivery and assessment

You will attend seminars and workshop sessions which will focus on translation theories, cultural translation and transfer, but also on the practical activity of translation. Each semester will also include a site visit to one of our partner institutions which engages in cultural translation, broadly construed. Assessment will include essays, reports (which may take the form of written documents, websites or PowerPoint presentations), and the portfolio of translation.

Career opportunities

Our taught MRes in Translation Studies is, first and foremost, a fantastic gateway into a career in Translation, whether you want to work freelance or in-house, and there’s much more that you could end up doing with a qualification in Translation.

In a world of globalisation, criss-crossing travel and trade routes, and multi-lingual, multi-platform media, your translation skills will set you apart from the crowd. Whether you’re interested in developing a career in Europe, or working for one of the many international companies with offices in Scotland and the UK, or playing your part in the ever-expanding, diversifying tourist industry, this is the course for you.

Scotland’s exports increased by £1.6 billion over the course of 2010 according to the latest Global Connections Survey (2013) and the upward trend looks set to continue. For organisations such as Scottish Enterprise, up and coming translators who can expand Scotland’s business partners and look towards new horizons are extremely highly valued. And our course's five, in-demand languages (French, Spanish, Chinese, Polish and Russian) are indicators of some of these new horizons towards which the country is turning with an increase of more than 14% in exports to the EU, strong growth in emerging Asian markets, and a marked interest in new, innovative areas such as renewables. And wherever Scottish businesses seek to expand their marketplace, they call on translators to help smooth the path.