The Translation and Interpreting Students Perception of the Degree in Translation and Interpreting in Spain. An Empirical Study

The main aim of this article is to present an empirical study on the opinion and perception that students of Translation and Interpreting have on the former licenciatura degree in Translation and Interpreting and the Bachelors degree in Translation and Interpreting adapted to the European Higher Education Area. The data collection tool used in our study is a survey, which was filled in by 629 subjects from 22 universities in Spain. Not only have we measured their satisfaction with the degrees, their perception of preparation for the world of work and their perception of priority of improvement of some aspects, but also we present an in-depth analysis of some Translation and Interpreting students features and also of their interests. The main hypothesis is that the introduction of the Bachelors degree on Translation and Interpreting has changed the opinion and perception of the students regarding to the former licenciatura degree in Translation and Interpreting. The aims of this study are to provide empirical data on Spanish Translation and Interpreting students opinion and to lay down the bases for a possible triangulation of the data we obtained with the opinion of other agents involved in training translators and interpreters at Spanish universities.