Program Overview

Translation and Interpreting MA

Overview

Our Translation and Interpreting MA is open to native and non-native speakers of English, who also speak any of the following languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, or Spanish. The course builds on your existing language skills and provides extensive professional training aimed at a career in the translation and interpreting markets.

Course Structure

The course is designed to enable you to succeed as a professional linguist or freelance interpreter in the public and private sector and/or engage in further research. The course has an excellent graduate employment record, and our membership of Elia Exchange ensures that we can assist you in securing high-quality work placements both during the course and following graduation.

Core Modules

• Interpreting: This module is designed to provide you with training in public service interpreting as well as in interpreting in formal conference scenarios in both consecutive and simultaneous interpreting modes.
• Interpreting Skills Lab: This module equips you with a range of essential skills needed to succeed in the interpreting profession.
• Specialised Translation: This module offers practical, language-specific translation training, utilising a wide range of specialist texts of the kind you will be expected to handle in a professional context.
• Translation Skills Lab: This module equips you with a wide range of practice-oriented skills needed to succeed in the language services industry.
• Professional Development: This module offers a range of seminars and workshops designed to prepare you for your working lives as translators and interpreters, either in-house or freelance.
• MA Interpreting Project OR MA Translation Project OR MA Dissertation: The final core module consists of individual study for and completion of an extended piece of analysis on your own performance in fulfilling an interpretation task or an extended piece of translation, accompanied by an analytic commentary and a set of annotations on the translation process.

Option Modules

• Translation as Cultural Practice: This module examines the ways in which translation, conceived as a cultural practice, can be understood within diverse linguistic, social, professional and historical contexts.
• International Liaison and Advocacy: This module considers current theories and practices of information processing, communication and interpretation and their relevance to global co-operation.
• International Organisations and Institutional Discourse: This module aims to develop a critical understanding of the interaction between language, discourse, and power as it is projected in an institutional communication context.

Professional Recognition

The University of Westminster is a Higher Education Language partner of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and a member of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting, the Conférence Internationale permanente d’Instituts Universitaires de Traducteurs et Interprètes (CIUTI), Elia Exchange, and the UN MoU Network, a group of international signatories to a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations on cooperation in the training of language professionals for the UN language competitive examinations.

Entry Requirements

• A minimum of a lower second class honours degree (2:2). Linguists without a degree but with sufficient experience in translation and/or interpreting will also be considered.
• All applicants must take an entry test consisting of written and oral components. If you are successful in the entry tests, we will interview you in person or on the telephone to determine if the Translation and Interpreting MA is right for you.
• The course is open to native speakers of Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish.
• Most successful applicants will have met the IELTS requirement when they submit their application, as excellent English language skills are fundamentally important.
• If your first language is not English, you should have an IELTS 6.5 with 7.0 in speaking and a minimum of 6.0 in all other components.

Fees and Funding

• UK tuition fee: £11,700 (Price per academic year)
• International tuition fee: £17,500 (Price per academic year)
• Alumni discount: This course is eligible for an alumni discount.
• Funding: There is a range of funding available that may help you fund your studies, including Student Finance England (SFE).
• Scholarships: The University is dedicated to supporting ambitious and outstanding students and we offer a variety of scholarships to eligible postgraduate students.

Facilities

• State-of-the-art Sanako interpreting suites available to students on the Translation and Interpreting MA.

Teaching and Assessment

• Teaching methods across all our postgraduate courses focus on active student learning through lectures, seminars, workshops, problem-based and blended learning, and where appropriate practical application.
• Assessment types include written exams, practical, and coursework.

Research Groups

• Our research achieves real-world impact and we are proud to claim a rich and diverse profile of high-quality research and knowledge exchange in a wide range of disciplines.
• Find out more about our research groups related to this course: Westminster Forum for Language and Linguistics.

Supporting You

• Our Student Hub is where you’ll find out about the services and support we offer, helping you get the best out of your time with us.
• Study support – workshops, 1-2-1 support and online resources to help improve your academic and research skills.
• Personal tutors – support you in fulfilling your academic and personal potential.
• Student advice team – provide specialist advice on a range of issues including funding, benefits and visas.
• Extra-curricular activities – volunteering opportunities, sports and fitness activities, student events and more.