Gå til hovedinnhold
0
Jump to main content
Course plan for

Translation and Professional Communication, Master's programme

Admission requirements

The general admission requirement is a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent education of a minimum of three years’ duration (180 ECTS credits).

The following must be included:

Either a bachelor’s degree in languages or translation, or a bachelor’s degree in economy, law, technology, or communication.

Applicants whose bachelor’s degree is in a field other than languages must have a minimum of 60 ECTS credits of language study, either as part of the bachelor’s degree or as a supplement.

A weighted average grade of C or better is a requirement. The requirement is calculated on the basis of the bachelor’s degree as a whole.

2. Proficiency in two languages, i.e.. Norwegian and another language.

The language pair Norwegian/English will be offered each year, in addition to two additional language pairs (always including Norwegian). Information about the language pairs offered each year will be published on the programme’s website.

Proficiency in both languages must be at a minimum of CEFR B2 level, either documented by the transcript of record from the bachelor’s degree, see above, or another form of documentation. This proficiency level is the minimum required for admission, but higher proficiency levels are recommended for this programme. Native speaker proficiency fulfills qualification requirements for one of the two languages.

Furthermore, the general regulations on admission to studies at the University of Agder apply.

Admission to single courses is available.

General description and profile

Professional communication is essential to the world of business, organisations and the public sector. Large scale production of text of a varied nature, from technical documentation to annual and official reports, produced and translated both for internal and external use, calls for a particular set of linguistic and communicative skills. The increased use of technology leads to more multilingual content being created, which again leads to an increased need for skilled language workers.

As more content is created and the current arena of communication is becoming more and more global, communication often has to take place across different languages. This means that the language workers of today must be in possession of a unique, multilingual skill set for transferring meaning from one language to another. This programme educates language workers for high level specialised communication, and translation is an integral part of this.

Crosslinguistic communication is also a vital part of communicative processes within national boundaries in multilingual societies. Translation activity supports democracy and inclusion, making it an important tool in work towards achieving UN Sustainable Development goal no. 10, more specifically 16.10: Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements.

Students have to show high levels of understanding and insight in the relevant fields of research, i. e. translation studies, linguistics and specialised communication, to achieve the learning outcomes established for the programme. The students will study relevant traditions, theories and research methods. Through working on their master’s thesis, they will be trained in critical and independent thinking on issues related to specialised communication and translation. Working with ethical issues relating to research and professional practice will be an integral part of this work.

Programme Structure
1. sem OF-406-1 Foundational issues in Translation Studies 10 sp OF-410-1 Specialised translation: public sector, business and legal texts 10 sp NO-421-1 Norwegian language and text incl. Professional communication, Terminology 10 sp
2. sem Second semester: exchange, internship or elective courses
3. sem OF-407-1 Specialised translation: technical and medical texts 10 sp EN-454-1 Research Methods for Language, Linguistics and Translation 10 sp OF-500-1 (1/2) Master’s thesis 10 sp
4. sem OF-500-1 (2/2) Master’s thesis 30 sp

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The candidate

  • has advanced knowledge of linguistics, specialised communication and translation studies and specific knowledge of specialised communication within selected genres and discourse communities.
  • Has in-depth knowledge of modern theories of language and specialised communication, of newer theories of translation and of relevant research methods.
  • has advanced knowledge of how globalization and technological development affects professional communication and translation.
  • has advanced knowledge of language resources and digital tools such as term bases, translation tools, corpora, data bases, etc.

Skills

The candidate

  • can carry out advanced specialised communication tasks in the languages they master, as well as specialised translation across these languages.
  • can utilise the main digital tools for tasks pertaining to language and communication and for collaboration.
  • can analyse and critically approach existing research within the relevant disciplines.
  • can develop their own research questions and select the relevant design and methods of research.
  • can complete an independent, delimited research project.

General competence

The candidate

  • can analyse and discuss important ethical issues related to scientific research and professional practice.
  • can communicate the content of an extended independent work and master the main terminology and concepts of the subject area.
  • can utilise knowledge about translation and professional communication in new areas to carry out advanced tasks and projects, both individually and as part of a group.

Teaching methods

This master’s programme is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars, focusing on student participation through translation, editing, and text production tasks. Students work both individually and in groups as part of their professional training. Students are required to attend a compulsory seminar on campus at the start of each academic year, covering, among other things, aspects of professional communication and (digital) collaboration. Detailed information on courses can be found in the specific course descriptions.

Assessment methods

The assessment methods include written home exams and portfolio exams. Detailed information can be found in the specific course descriptions.

Internationalization

Internationalization is integrated in the programme in different ways. Through exchange agreements made with institutions that offer translation studies at master’s level, students get the opportunity to go on exchange in the second semester. Internship opportunities at translation businesses abroad will also be available in the second semester. The programme courses are offered as free-standing courses to foreign students at UiA, especially students from partnering institutions belonging to the Center for Norwegian Studies Abroad (SNU). The field of translation is foundationally an international field. The course reading used in the programme is mainly international, and courses will be taught partly in Norwegian and partly in English, in addition to other languages that students might be working with.

Requirements for continuing in programme

OF-406 Foundational issues in Translation Studies and a minimum of 40 ECTS credits from the first and second semesters of the programme (including any exchange abroad).

Occupational profiles / further studies

The master’s programme in Translation and Professional Communication ensures that the students are qualified for a host of different jobs within the field of specialized text production. Language service providers often offer services like text creation, proofreading and editing, in addition to bilingual services like translation, subtitling, localization, multilingual webpages, etc.

The master’s programme provides a foundation for further studies at doctoral level. Students may apply to admission to, for example, the PhD programme for linguistics at UiA’s Faculty of Humanities and Education.

Qualification awarded

The programme leads to the degree of Master in Translation and Professional Communication

Evaluation

Student evaluations are carried out annually in the Study Programme Advisory Committee in accordance with the quality system for education chapter 4.2.

Choose year:

Credits

120

Scope

Full time

Campus

Kristiansand 

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities and Education