With a focus on English to Chinese and Chinese to English translation, the MTI Programme distinguishes itself from general translation courses and programmes. Its specific objectives are to help students develop the following capabilities:

• A high level of proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing in both Chinese and English.
• A comprehensive set of skills as well as professional attitudes and ethics for carrying out professional translation/interpretation work between English and Chinese.
• A thorough understanding of theories, debates and research methods in translation and interpretation studies.
• Competency in conducting research in translation and interpretation as well as expertise in research design and methodology.
• Capabilities for tackling various issues in relation to registers and styles and rendering texts from a wide range of specialised fields, as well as adequate knowledge of relevant interdisciplinary concepts.
• Awareness of technological changes and advances in translation/interpretation, as well as the know-how to use translation tools to facilitate translation production.
• The ability to reflect on one’s own translation and interpreting experience in more theoretical terms, so as to learn from future experience and foster developments in the related fields.

The establishment of the MTI Programme is a timely response to the demands of the local society and the region. It not only serves to bridge the gap between different disciplines in academia and industry but also to add to the intellectual breadth of NTU as a comprehensive university.

The launch of the Master of Arts in Translation and Interpretation (MTI) Programme is the result of more than a decade’s continuous efforts and success of NTU’s team of experts in their pioneering work in developing translation programmes, such as the Minor in Translation Programme launched in 2004, and the Graduate Diploma in Translation and Interpretation Programme (GDTI) launched in 2005. ​​

Benchmarked against the best translation Programmes in the world, NTU’s MTI programme is structured with a strong academic emphasis capitalising on Singapore’s acknowledged expertise in bilingual teaching and research. It seeks to build upon and further strengthen NTU’s existing translation, bilingualism, and bicultural research capacity and teaching expertise. At the same time, it endeavours to incorporate the latest cutting-edge technology in the areas of computational linguistics, machine translation, and corpus linguistics.

Pedagogically, the MTI Programme features an interdisciplinary curriculum that offers translation-focused, industry-relevant, and academically stimulating professional training that builds upon teaching and research excellence. Its specialised courses integrate the training of translation and interpretation skills with the knowledge of subject areas of expertise for which the University is well-known. These include translation studies, linguistics, literature, public policy, mass communication, business, medicine, and computer engineering. The curriculum will also include a 6-week immersion programme at Beijing Foreign Studies University, a leading institution in the teaching of interpretation and translation and research of foreign languages as well.