Translation internships and mentoring – survey for universities/colleges

This survey is part of a series that aims to explore translation internships and mentoring from the viewpoint of different stakeholders: interns/mentees, mentors, organizations running internship programs, educational institutions and translator associations. Through a mixture of learning by doing, expert supervision and building a professional network, internships and mentoring programs serve to accelerate the transition of early-career translators into the profession. Yet graduating students are often under pressure from their educational institutions to complete an internship in order to gain credits, but the internship environment is often quite different from their future work environment. Therefore this series of surveys aims to identify best practices for internship and mentoring so that students, mentors and other stakeholders can make better choices in planning and implementing their internship and mentoring programs.

Please complete this survey if you represent a university/college.
If you participated in an internship/mentoring program as an intern/mentee, please complete our dedicated survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TR-int-I.
If you acted as a mentor, please complete our survey for mentors, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TR-int-M.
If you represent a translator association that has promoted internship/mentoring programs, please complete our survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TR-int-A.
If you represent an organization that runs internship programs, please complete our survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TR-int-O.
Please also share information about these surveys among other stakeholders.

Most questions in the present survey are in multiple-choice format with predefined answers that will help us establish some useful statistics. Text boxes are added for comments after each question, and we expect to gain insight from the added comments. Please use these fields to express your views in a more specific way than what the answer options allow. The survey can be completed in 10 to 15 minutes even if you add comments to most questions.

When you click on “Next page”, you will see all questions. There are no mandatory fields: you can skip any question that you do not wish to answer. Yet, detailed information, including demographic data, will help us identify trends in much more detail. All information you provide will be treated anonymously unless you specify otherwise.

We plan to publish the full survey report and make it available for free to survey participants and other interested parties. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. I thank my colleagues, Catherine Howard and Maria Karra, for their help in creating this survey.

Attila Piróth
Freelance translator

* 1. What university/college do you represent?

* 2. In which country is your university/college?

* 3. What is your role at the university/college?

* 4. What languages are included in your program for translation students? [Select all that apply]

* 5. What translation certificates / degrees can be obtained at your university/college?

* 6. Do translation students typically pay for their courses or are these free at your university/college?

  N/A Typically paid for Typically free Other I prefer not to answer
Non-degree certificate
BA degree
MA or MSc degree
PhD degree

* 7. Is an internship/mentorship program part of your university/college curriculum for translation students?

* 8. What percentage of translation students complete an internship before obtaining their certificate / degree?

  100% 80-99% 60-79% 41-59% 21-40% 1-20% 0%
Non-degree certificate
BA degree
MA or MSc degree
PhD degree

* 9. How do students find internship programs? [Select all that apply]

* 10. Do students get credits for completing an internship?

* 11. What is the credit equivalent at your university/college of a full-time two-month internship?

* 12. What is the average/typical length of the internship programs completed by your translation students? (Round it to the closest whole number unless the duration was less than 1 month. Please do not include those students in the average who do not complete an internship program.)

* 13. What internship/mentoring programs are eligible for credits at your university/college? [Select all that apply]

* 14. Please describe the criteria internship programs have to meet to be eligible for credits at your university/college

* 15. How does your university/college oversee internship programs? [Select all that apply]

* 16. What measures do you use to monitor whether the internship follows the pre-established program?

* 17. Are internship programs regularly re-evaluated based on students’ feedback to assess their effectiveness / fitness for purpose? If so, how?

* 18. Has it ever happened that your university/college withdrew its approval for an internship program?

* 19. Do students get paid for their participation in internship programs?

* 20. What percentage of your students are offered a full-time in-house work contract at the interning organization at the end of their internship program?

* 21. What percentage of your students are offered a part-time in-house work contract at the interning organization at the end of their internship program?

* 22. What percentage of your students are offered subcontracted work at the interning organization at the end of their internship program?

* 23. What percentage of your translation graduates work as translators today?

 
Graduates who obtained their degree in the past 5 years
Graduates overall (regardless of their year of graduation)

* 24. Do you have a partnership agreement with professional associations on internships/mentoring programs?

* 25. What kinds of problems has your university/college encountered in its internship programs? How did  learn about them and what measures were taken to address them?

* 26. What best practices would you recommend that other universities/colleges follow concerning translation internship programs?

* 27. Please share any further details about how translation internship programs are handled at your university/college

* 28. Please add here any comments about this survey

* 29. If you feel comfortable with adding your name and email address, please do so here. It will allow us to contact you with questions related to the survey (if you approve), and send you a copy of the survey report.

  Yes No
I can be contacted directly about this survey
Send me a copy of the survey report
Contact me directly with similar surveys in the future
My name can be added to my comments cited in the survey report

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