Programme description for Translation and Professional Communication, Master's programme (2022–2024)

Knowledge

The candidate

• has advanced knowledge of linguistics, communication and translation studies and specialised knowledge of professional communication within selected genres and areas of discourse.
• has in-depth knowledge of modern theories of language and 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 high level tasks pertaining to professional communication in the languages they master, as well as professional 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.

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:

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

Applicants with a non-linguistic bachelor’s degree must have a minimum of 60 ECTS credits in languages, 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.

1. Proficiency in two languages, ie. Norwegian and another language.

In addition to the language pair Norwegian/English, proficiency in two other language pairs will be admission criteria each year. Information about the language pairs will be published on the programme’s web page.

The 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 otherwise documented. Being a native speaker will count as sufficient competency in one of the languages.

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

Admission to single courses is an option.

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 professional communication, and translation is an integral part of this.

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

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 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.