JUPAS Code: JS2026
Translation - Open up a Whole New World!
Translation Society members as student helpers on Information Day
Translation is about languages, about cultures, and about how you can bridge the gap between them. It’s about exploring and explaining ideas, about finding the right words at the right time, and about being there when a business deal is on the line and you’re the only person who can tell both sides what they’re saying to each other.
The BA Translation Programme
Translating for the Children's Council
On the BA Translation Programme, we’ll teach you how to produce translations that are effective and professional. But we’ll also teach you about how and why translation phenomena arise – how and why cultures perceive things differently, and how you can negotiate those differences.
So what do you get if you join our Programme? In our core courses, we offer training in written translation and oral interpretation, with plenty of practice and a lot of individual feedback on your work, so that you’re always improving your skills – throughout the programme. We’ll offer you plenty of training in advanced English usage too, as well as a series of electives that address more specific interests – like translation technology, media translation, and drama translation, just to name a few. And of course, it’s not just practice. You’ll also get a training in the more theoretical aspects of translation and intercultural studies – such as the history of translation, the philosophical issues that underlie translation, and the issue of gender in translation.
Department Head talking to student helpers from the BA Translation Programme
We also place strong emphasis on linking your studies to professional practice. We have a longstanding and extensive network of employer contacts from the translation and interpreting industries, built up over more than twenty years, and our BA Programme incorporates a compulsory internship component known as “Placement”, which draws on this network. We also encourage our students to undertake commissioned jobs and we build such jobs into our practice-based courses.
Student performing pipa at the 6th IATIS Translation Conference
During your degree, you’ll also have opportunities for student exchange overseas. We have a wide range of universities abroad for you to choose from – be it the UK, US, or somewhere you hadn’t thought of, like Norway or even Estonia!
All of this is delivered by a group of staff who really care for their students in a way that’s special to BU, and whose academic credentials are second to none in the region.
Scholarships
- The BA Translation Second-Year Scholarship offers HK$5,000 to up to three full-time Year 2 Translation students who have obtained a cGPA of 3.4 or above in the first-year Bachelor degree study at HKBU, and have completed at least one TRAN course with GPA 3.4 or above, preferably TRAN1005.
- The Equity Financial Press Limited Scholarship provides HK$20,000 each to two local Year 2 BATRAN students who have achieved the highest cumulative Grade Point Average of at least 3.40 in the previous academic year.
- A scholarship, donated by a group of staff members in honour of Professor Jane Lai, provides an annual sum of HK$2,000 to a final year BATRAN student who produces the best Honours Project (highest score in the Honours Project).
Careers
Students of the Translation Workshop with Dr Janice Pan at the ITT Lab
With a translation degree in hand, you’re well-equipped for a whole variety of jobs: translation and interpreting of all kinds, of course, but beyond that, almost anything that demands an advanced proficiency in bilingual communication and expert intercultural competence. Our graduates have found jobs as court interpreters, government translators, PR managers and news reporters. Others have gone into fields such as arts management, magazine journalism, bilingual editing, foreign diplomacy, and even restaurant marketing. The BA Translation Programme gives you a gateway to all these and many more.
What Our Students Say
The Translation Programme has helped me become a more independent person.
The curriculum is designed to empower students. We are encouraged to read and think deeply and widely.
The teachers are professional, dedicated and supportive.
I gained valuable experience in interlingual and intercultural communication which laid a solid foundation for future intellectual development.
Natalie Fok (2018), Major in Translation
"The Translation Programme is where I have been nurtured to become a competent and open-minded individual. In addition to a well-established curriculum supported by veteran teachers, I enjoyed a wealth of opportunities to venture into new horizons – through managing the Translation Workshop and participating in internships, interpreting competition and exchange programme, I gained valuable experience in interlingual and intercultural communication which laid a solid foundation for future intellectual development."