What is the European Master’s in Translation?
European Master’s in Translation is a quality label for MA university programmes in translation. It is awarded – by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DG Translation) – to higher education programmes that meet agreed professional standards and market demands. These programmes become members of the EMT network.
EMT members 2024-29 — map and list
Goal
The main goal of the EMT is to improve the quality of translator training and so give young language professionals better chances of finding work.
The EMT competence framework, drawn up by European experts, is at the core of the project. It defines the basic skills that translators need to work successfully in today’s market. More and more universities, in the EU and beyond, use it as a model for designing their programmes.
By training highly skilled translators in close cooperation with the language industry, the EMT seeks, in the long run, to improve the status of the entire translation profession in the EU.
Why join?
As an EMT member, your institution will benefit from a partnership with DG Translation, including access to short-term training placements for your students (depending on available places in our translation departments). You will also benefit from the network’s collective efforts to achieve the following objectives:
- promote a quality label for qualifications;
- give more visibility to your study programme (see also the EMT blog below);
- build up cooperation links;
- share skills and resources, with the aim of raising the profile of EMT member programmes;
- take part in an ongoing EMT forum on skills, criteria, resources, methods and requirements;
- design joint degrees/double diplomas in translation studies;
- negotiate with partner associations, institutions, and technical and commercial organisations as a network;
- enhance the status of translation as a profession.
See more about the benefits of EMT membership (video).
Members of the EMT network are selected through calls for applications, organised every 5 years.
Eligibility and selection criteria
Network activities
EMT members hold regular network meetings to share best practice and cooperate on concrete projects – with the goal of innovating their curricula and teaching methods.
They also cooperate closely with the language industry, to stay abreast of the latest developments affecting translator training (e.g. tools and technology, traineeships, employers’ expectations).
The EMT Board and the language industry expert group (LIND) keep track of this structured dialogue between academia and industry. The EMT Board is the elected governing body of the EMT network. Together with DG Translation (Director-General and relevant staff), it coordinates the network’s activities and steers its initiatives. The LIND expert group consists of language industry experts, who provide expertise on translation as part of the language industry, language data and language technologies. Both bodies cooperate to support, further develop and promote quality translation training.
DG Translation supports the EMT by
- organising EMT Network meetings
- stimulating research cooperation
- promoting academia-business cooperation
- offering training placements for EMT students
In return EMT universities support DGT in continuing professional development activities.
For more information about EMT network activities, see:
