MA Translation and Intercultural Studies
- MA
Overview
This interdisciplinary MA programme explores how humans communicate across linguistic, cultural, and societal difference. Crossing the fields of literary, media, technology, and accessibility studies, the programme allows you to develop deep disciplinary knowledge and skills alongside an ability to recognise the value of interdisciplinary approaches, and to use them to design your own research projects.
A balance of individual and group work, combined with feedback from lecturers and peers, will allow you to grow in confidence as a transcultural thinker and communicator. You will express complex ideas in more than one language in an accessible and engaging manner, in both spoken and written language. The mandatory core units - Translation Practice and Analysis (Multilingual); Research Methods in Translation and Interdisciplinary Studies; and Language, Ethics, and Communication - equip you with practical and critical-reflective skills in translation and intercultural studies.
Optional units from across the School and Faculty provide you with additional opportunities for specialisation according to your interests. Indicative optional units are offered in areas such as film, literature, AI, video games, and museums. With programme approval, you may also pursue supervised independent study projects and/or independent placement opportunities with external organisations, including our industry partners.
The focus of the programme is on processes of translation, communication and intercultural exchange and not on the grammatical or stylistic norms of specific languages. The programme's multilingual format is intended to counteract power structures that favour a select group of the world's languages in terms of technological development and formal education. Linguistic diversity is therefore central to our mission.
Proficient users of English and any other additional language will be able to join our multilingual classroom. Where relevant, assignments will be submitted with literal/interlinear translations. Subject to staff availability, those seeking feedback on the grammatical or stylistic conventions of a specific language could undertake an assessed translation project in the Supervised Independent Study unit, involving a combination of the languages taught in the School.
You will be taught in lectures, seminars and workshops by experts from Bristol's School of Modern Languages and the Faculty of Arts, Law, and Social Sciences. You will have access to the lively environment within the School where translators, interpreters and professionals with distinct skills and expertise contribute to a culture of shared learning and practice across our postgraduate programmes.
Programme structure
On a full-time schedule, you will take the three mandatory core units of Translation Practice and Analysis (Multilingual); Research Methods in Translation and Interdisciplinary Studies; and Language, Ethics, and Communication in Teaching Block 1.
Through optional unit choices taken in Teaching Block 2, you may choose to follow one of three pathways to be specified on your degree certificate:
- Literary Translation - for those interested in practice-based work in translating literary texts and in the academic study of areas such as literature, publishing, and translation theory.
- Media and Accessibility - for those seeking to specialise in translation for accessibility in media beyond the written text, through the practice and exploration of academic and applied areas such as disability studies, subtitling, and audio description.
- Technology and Society - for those interested in the applications and ethics of language technologies in society, including critical explorations of translation policy and topics addressing uses of large language models and machine translation in areas like healthcare and law.
Unit choices applying to these pathways will be updated and communicated to registering students each year. You may also follow a bespoke curricular pathway according to your interests.
At the end of Teaching Block 2, you will work on your own research project over the summer. The project is submitted for assessment in the Dissertation unit.
Visit our programme catalogue for full details of the structure and unit content for our MA Translation and Intercultural Studies.
Entry requirements
You will typically need a strong second-class honours degree (55% or higher) or an international equivalent in any subject.
Applicants need to demonstrate competency in a language other than English. This may include formal study of languages as well as informal or experiential knowledge of languages gained through work, family, or personal circumstances.
We will consider your application if your interim grades are currently slightly lower than the programme's entry requirements and may make you an aspirational offer. This offer would be at the standard level, so you would need to achieve the standard entry requirements by the end of your degree.
We will also consider your application if your final overall achieved grade is slightly lower than the programme's entry requirement.
If your achieved grade is lower than our entry requirements, your application may be more likely to receive an offer if you have additional relevant qualifications. If you have one of the following, please include your CV (curriculum vitae / résumé) when you apply, showing:
- a relevant postgraduate qualification.
See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website.
Read the programme admissions statement for important information on entry requirements, the application process and supporting documents required.
If English is not your first language, you will need to reach the requirements outlined in our profile level C.
Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.
Fees and funding
- Home: full-time
- £13,500 per year
- Home: part-time (two years)
- £6,750 per year
- Overseas: full-time
- £33,400 per year
Fees are subject to an annual review. For programmes that last longer than one year, please budget for up to an 8% increase in fees each year.
More about tuition fees, living costs and financial support.
Alumni discount
University of Bristol students and graduates can benefit from a 25% reduction in tuition fees for postgraduate study. Check your eligibility for an alumni discount.
Funding and scholarships
Further information on funding for prospective UK and international postgraduate students.
Career prospects
Professionals achieve better results when they pay attention to the language they use in exchanges with their stakeholders; graduates of this programme will enable their clients to make these improvements, across sectors and domains and especially around higher-order decisions.
It is clear that recent technological changes have not made multi-stakeholder communication more seamless. As consultants and creators, graduates of this programme will be able to act as language or cultural consultant, accessibility manager, language and translation policy advisor, or do complex qualitative and quantitative research in the civil service and the private and third sectors. Many of the programme's staff have active professional profiles across sectors and will discuss career pathways and how to prepare for them in the programme's core units. They have a long track record of enabling graduates to work in environments where they can capitalise on their skills.
Contact us
- Contact
- Enquiries Team
- Phone
- +44 (0) 117 394 1649
- choosebristol-pg@bristol.ac.uk