BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ORGANISATION
Our university was founded in 1409, making it one of the oldest in Germany: a comprehensive university with 14 faculties, 460 professorships and 30,000 students. Our university is among the oldest in Europe. Many world-renowned figures taught or studied here. Time and again, Leipzig has also been the source of major scientific developments. As an outward-looking and modern comprehensive university, we strive to be one of the leading institutions of higher education in Germany. A member of the German U15 network, today we are one of the country’s leading universities when it comes to top-class research and medical expertise. Leipzig University comprises 14 faculties with over 130 institutes and centres as well as 17 central institutions. The range of subjects at our comprehensive university extends from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, life sciences and medicine.
The Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translatology (IALT) is continuing a tradition of language mediator training in Leipzig, which began more than 60 years ago. The institute won great renown through the “Leipzig School of Translation Studies” connected with names such as Albrecht Neubert, Otto Kade, and Gert Jäger. The institute in its present form came into being in 1999 after several restructurings, especially during the post-reunification period.
The IALT is part of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Leipzig. It offers a bachelor’s programme in translation, master’s programmes in conference interpreting and translatology as well as the Structured Doctoral Programme in Translatology and Applied Linguistics. A dual degree can be earned through the binational master’s programme Specialist Translation Arabic/German, offered by Ain Shams University in Cairo and the University of Leipzig where IALT is cooperating with the university’s Institute of Oriental Studies.
The languages that can be studied within IALT’s translation programmes are English, French, Spanish, and Russian. In the winter semester of 2010, Galician and Catalan were added to the list. With the opening of the Basque department in the summer semester of 2013, the range of languages was further expanded and is unique in Germany.
Cooperations with other institutes of the university and other higher-education institutions in Leipzig as well as worldwide have made it possible for IALT to not only offer this array of languages, but also the chance for students to enhance their competence in cultural studies and non-philological fields such as engineering and law.
In addition to language-mediator training based on a sound translatological foundation, the institute also focuses on the linguistics of specialized texts, technical writing, the evaluation of translation quality, translation didactics, and variety linguistics.
Curricula at IALT are characterized by practical relevance, application of modern technologies and relevant software as well as a focus on comprehensive linguistic, technical, and cultural competencies. More than 600 students benefit from this focus and experience – and we know from experience that these students will have very good job chances upon graduation.
HOW THE ORGANISATION WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE DISSEMINATION AND EXPLOITATION OF THE PROJECT RESULTS
Exchange of experience and expertise during and after the project, participation in the dissemination of the project information, promotion of the information about the project to our network of contacts, e.g. on on the website, contribution to exploitation and sustainability of the project results, e.g. through participation at dissemination events of the University of Bologna
