Translation and AI (Taught)

Why choose this course
Our teaching combines professional translation experience with expertise in translation studies and is designed to meet the true needs of today’s translation market, whilst also enabling you to develop a professional CV as you study.

As a UK centre of excellence in Translation Studies, we are guided by an ambitious research programme which focuses on the responsible integration of tried-and-tested professional translation practices.

These fast-evolving language technologies include translation memories, term management software, corpus linguistics as an aid to translation, machine translation and artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT.

What you will study
The course has a strong practical component that includes translation practice in the following languages paired with English: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Greek, Italian, Korean, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Other languages are available upon request, subject to a minimum number of students.

You will develop professional translation skills under the coordinated guidance of professional translators and experienced academics. You will simulate real-life translation scenarios and cover a variety of specialisms, as you develop a solid grounding in the linguistic, cognitive, technological, quality, social and ethical dimensions of the profession. You will learn to understand, discuss and justify translation processes and translation product decisions. You will confront a wide range of translation challenges, learn to use cutting-edge software to enhance your practice, including computer-assisted translation tools, corpus linguistics software for translation, machine translation, and the responsible use of generative AI tools. In doing so, you will gain a critical understanding of how technologies impact the profession.

Optional modules focusing on the creative, business, technological and research dimensions of translation enable you to customise your learning, according to your own strengths, personal tastes and career ambitions.

You will have the opportunity to gain experience of language services provision through work placements and/or other tasks and industry collaborations.

To conclude your MA, our flexible dissertation options enable you to submit a choice of one of the following:

A dissertation based on researching a specific translation topic
An extended translation paired with a reflective analytical commentary
A critical report of a language-industry work placement
A critical report of a skills-enhancement programme (such as a summer school or similar).
During your studies, you will have the opportunity to have your academic and professional excellence rewarded with the following prizes:

RWS Campus Top Student Award (two Trados licenses)
Project management training (one free-of-charge place in the Pro PM Training and Certification Programme)
Professional Engagement Portfolio Prize
Best Performance in Translation Prize.