March 9-On March 8th, the President of GDUFS Mr. Zhong Weihe held a meeting at the South Campus with assessment experts from the International Translation Universities Union(CIUTI). Experts including Dr. Frank Peeters of University of Antwerp of Belgium and Dr. Ulrich Kautz of Mainz University of Germany attended the meeting. They were accompanied by Dean of the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies (SITS), Professor Ping Hong, Party Secretary of SITS Mr. Gao Yunjian, Director of International Cooperation and Exchange Office Mr. Jiao Fangtai, as well as the Vice Director Mr. Wujunfeng. The arrival of the assessment experts to GUDFS marked the third stage of the CIUTI application, the stage of field research.
Both parties are exchanging ideas during the meeting
After the usual exchange of greetings, President. Zhong Weihe first introduced the history of GDUFS, including the information on faculties, disciplines and research posts of Master and Doctor Degrees. It was interesting to learn that in 1995, Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute combined with Guangzhou Institute of Foreign Trade to form Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
Mr. Zhong then highlighted the introduction of the Foreign Languages Faculties and the arrangement of translation courses at GDUFS. Dedicated to become the top foreign languages education school in China, GUDFS has set up 13 foreign languages disciplines. Among these, the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies (SITS) was established in 2005 and has achieved great progress over the past five years, taking a leading place among its counterparts in China. The courses offered by SITS are distributed into Foreign Languages and Translation learning in accordance with the international trend. At GUDFS, students are encouraged to master three languages, namely Chinese, English, German, Japanese or others. Both professors speaking complimented the teaching of SITS.
President Zhong Weihe holding a cordial conversation with Dr. Frnak Peeters
Mr. Zhong gave special thanks to the advice offered by the assessment experts on the development of SITS and invited them to attend lectures at SITS the next day. Both professors had already visited the teaching facilities allocated for SITS including the Laboratory of Simultaneous Interpretation. they also looked at various students' academic and test papers as well as the teaching plans of the Translation faculty. At the end of the visit, President Zhong Weihe presented souvenirs on behalf of GDUFS to the assessment experts.
Mr. Zhong presenting souvenirs to the assessment experts.
Annex: Established in 1960, CIUTI is a high-level accreditation body of international translation education. Currently, 39 international top Translation Institutes from 18 countries, including Translation Department of Geneva University, are its members. CIUTI sets stringent regulation on the qualifications of its membership, not only emphasizing the international-standard training of professional interpreters and translators, but highlights the theoretical training of interpretation and translation. Only the Translation Institutes that excel in both areas are qualified in the application. Graduate Institute of Interpretation and Translation of Beijing Foreign Studies University and that of ShanghaiInternationalStudiesUniversity became the members of CIUTI in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
In November and December of 2010, School of Interpreting and Translation Studies of GDUFS passed the first and second stage of the assessment of CIUTI successively, with two more stages remaining. The current stage of assessment mainly focuses on the evaluation of the school's teaching plans and students' academic and test papers. GUDFS will become the third member of CIUTI in mainland China once it passes the assessments.
Source: GDUFS News Website
