Brief Introduction

The School of Translation Studies (STS) , formerly the College of Translation Studies (CTS), was founded in 2003 by the late president of Xi’an Fanyi University (XFU), Ding Zuyi, an outstanding educator and pioneer of private education in China. Ding Jing, the chairperson of XFU, was elected as the first dean of CTS. In 2011, upon the approval of the Ministry of Education, CTS started to offer the undergraduate program in translation and interpretation, making it the first to do so among private universities in Northwest China. In 2014, with translation being an “exemplary major” of XFU, the “Translation Talent Program” was launched and supported with substantial facilitation. In 2017, CTS was granted the construction of “first-class undergraduate programme” by Shaanxi provincial government. With the motto of “equipping students with fine characters and profound knowledge”, relentless efforts of generations were paid off on January 3rd 2020, when CTS was trusted with the construction of “first-class undergraduate programme at the national level”, making XFU the only one among private universities in China enjoying this honor. On December 21st of the same year, the new name, School of Translation Studies, was officially used out of the need for discipline integration and further development. Dedicated to fostering translation talents with pioneering spirit, the school keeps exploring innovative models for talent upbringing with the spirit of perseverance and the philosophy of an all-round education, which earns praise and recognition from all sectors of society.

Education Model

As an institute responsible for the construction of national first-class undergraduate programme, STS aims at creating an education ecosystem in which pure knowledge and practical skills are genuinely incorporated with each other. To this end, STS implements the student-oriented education philosophy and sets up a five-in-one education model, which integrates theory education, project practice, company internship, professional competitions and certificate training. The operation of this model is supported by dual platforms (computer aided translation practice base and innovation and entrepreneurship base). Featuring a dual teaching system (online and offline) and a four-in-one evaluation mechanism (school assessment, company assessment, competition assessment and certificate assessment), this innovative model has played a model role in the construction of first-class undergraduate programme.

Faculty

There are altogether 54 faculty members in STS, of whom 18 were entitled as associate professors and above, 91.1% have a master’s degree and above. Currently, 17 of them are studying for doctoral degrees both at home and abroad. Among the faculty, one enjoys the special subsidy from the State Council; three were awarded the honor of outstanding teachers at provincial level. There are one doctoral student supervisor, three graduate student supervisors and 3 Zhongnan scholars. 63% of the faculty possess at least two qualification certificates. Teachers of the school hold academic positions such as National Social Science Fund project evaluation experts, Executive director of Shaanxi Translation Association, member of Xi’an Language Development Committee, China Advisor of the European Union Asia Center, and deputy director of Foreign Language and Literature Working Committee of Shaanxi Higher Education and Teaching Steering Committee. At the school level, with the approval from Shaanxi provincial government, STS have set up Shaanxi School-Corporate Synergy Virtual Teaching Hub and Yichuang (translation and innovation) Language Service Modern Industrial College. Moreover, STS has successfully hosted the Forum on International Communication and Foreign Language Development twice and undertaken the sub-forum of the 8th Asia-Pacific Translation and Interpretation Forum. STS faculties have attended academic conferences of different levels 584 person-times, and harvested numerous prizes and honors from competitions at both provincial and national level. As for teaching and research, STS gets approved one national first-class course, three provincial first-class courses, six sharing courses, one national research project and 72 provincial research projects. Till now, 231 academic papers (including 107 core papers) and 13 textbooks have been published, and the number is still surging.

Learning Environment

In order to help students tap into their potentials, STS has been dedicated to building a comprehensive and immersive learning environment. Currently, STS has set up a 3000 m2 Translation Experimental Teaching Centre. It is home to 2 simultaneous interpreting labs, 2 translation workshop labs, 3 computer aided translation labs, 1 cross-language big data lab, 2 tour guide simulation lab, 1 British & American culture appreciation centre, 4 innovation and entrepreneurship incubation lab and 15 language labs, which provide a good experimental place and equipment technical support for students’ practice, second class, innovation and entrepreneurship training, professional competition and so on. The computer aided translation labs are equipped with CAT software (Trados, Wordfast, etc.) and multi-function corpus with over 20 million paired sentences. The library has a collection of over 470,000 written books and 390,000 digital books on foreign language, 118 data bases, 300 kinds of audio and video materials, 175 kinds of digital English journals and 118 kinds of written English journals, including Chinese Translators Journal, Foreign Language Education, Chinese Science & Technology Translators Journal, The World of English, Foreign Language Teaching and Research, etc.

Achievements

STS implements the undergraduate quality project and constantly upgrades the application-oriented training system, which enable over 70% of its students to obtain a language proficiency certificate and translation qualification certificate before graduation. Among the graduates, Yang Pengkai joined the delegation to Vietnam with President Xi for the APEC Summit in 2017 when he was a sophomore. In recent years, STS students have got over 186 awards, of which 32 at the national level and 107 at the provincial level. The employment rate remains over 90% for three consecutive years. Feedbacks from employers have shown that STS graduates are superior in language proficiency, critical thinking and team work compared with their counterparts. Achievements are also reflected in the pass rate of postgraduate entrance examination. Students were enrolled as postgraduates by renowned universities including: Johns Hopkins University, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, University of Leeds, University of York, University of Edinburgh, University of Aberdeen, Heriot-Watt University, University of Nottingham, Queen's University Belfast, University of Queensland, Newcastle University, Monash University, University of Leicester, New York University, China Foreign Affairs University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, Shanghai International Studies University, Northwest University, Xi’an International Studies University, University of International Business and Economics, Soochow University, Beijing International Studies University, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shaanxi Normal University, Chang’an University, etc.

Guided by the education policy of the CPC, STS sets its purpose as fostering talents with innovation awareness in language service sector, building a faculty team with upright political mindset and professional qualification, and creating a harmonious teaching and learning environment. STS positions itself as serving the local economic and cultural development, making contribution to the university prosperity, and most importantly, helping the students with their personal growth and realization of their dreams. STS will continue to draw strength from the development of XFU, make the best of Zhongnan culture and incorporate it in translation teaching and learning and improve the quality of faculty so that it can fulfill its duty for the students, the university and the society.