Audiovisual Translation Studies

Entry requirements

A bachelor degree with a 2:1 (Hons) or equivalent.

For more information, visit the admissions qualifications webpage, or contact the Taught Postgraduate Admissions Team.

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. For more information please contact the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies admissions team.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The audiovisual market’s entertainment segment continues to grow, as more platforms introduce their streaming services. However, in addition to motion pictures and entertainment, videos are consistently supplementing or even replacing text in training and marketing content and websites.

As the global demand for content skyrockets, so does the requirement for video localization and accessibility. Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing, audio descriptions, and other accessibility support features are also increasingly more visible in the media landscape, offering greater inclusion for people with disabilities.

Working in audiovisual translation and media localisation is an exciting career that requires excellent knowledge of foreign languages, intercultural communication, subtitling, translation and localisation technology, accessibility (subtitling for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and audiodescription), terminology and project management. It also requires an excellent knowledge of the industry and its main players. The MA in Audiovisual Translation Studies at Leeds will confidently prepare you in all these areas.

Core modules will introduce you to essential concepts in translation theory, audiovisual translation and computer-assisted translation, with hands-on practice in our specialised labs throughout the year. You’ll work with professional software and develop professional skills through individual assignments and team projects with simulated scenarios, thus gaining insights into translation project management and professional industry workflows.

Throughout the year, you will have practical specialised translation and audiovisual translation tasks in your language pair(s). You’ll work between English and one or two languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. You’ll also have the chance to study modules informed by research taking place at our Centre for Translation Studies on topics such as machine translation, corpus linguistics, interpreting and genre analysis.

Specialist facilities

As a proud member of CIUTI (Conférence internationale permanente d'instituts universitaires de traducteurs et interprètes), ELIA and ITI, the Centre for Translation Studies also maintains privileged collaboration with EU institutions, the UN and several private sector partners. Our Specialised translation and audiovisual translation laboratories (ERIC and ERIN) support all of our translation programmes, complete with 59 high-spec PCs and a wide range of specialist software for translation, subtitling, re-speaking, dubbing, localization, terminology management and project management.

In addition to translation theory and specialised translation, this course focuses on providing you with training in the different facets of the Languages Industry. In this context, the core modules provide specialised training in an impressive range of software tools widely used by leading translation and subtitling companies, such as Wincaps Q4, ZooSubs, ZooDubs, Spot, Trados, SDL Multiterm, memoQ, Dragon NaturallySpeaking, Sketch Engine and PerfectIt.

This course is also available to study part-time over 24 months.

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Information for international students

This course requires an IELTS score of 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.5 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.