How to translate Dutch university terms to English

Through bi-weekly posts, MA staff participating in the USO-project on internationalisation will share concrete teaching tools and activities through which we aim to enhance ‘tailor-made’ internationalisation.

This week: the international classroom: lessons from MA Clinical Psychology.

When internationalising the curriculum, one comes across different problems.

Previously  we discussed how to guide curriculum changes using a course comparison between different universities: (https://tauu.uu.nl/kennisplatform/how-to-guide-potential-curriculum-changes-comparing-curriculums/).

After the curriculum has been decided on, one comes across different issues. One of these is how to correctly translate Dutch terms to English. This not only concerns the curriculum, but also the department websites and correspondence to students. How to translate a typical Dutch term like “eerste geldstroom” (government funding)? How do we tell students that a “gastdocent” (guest lecturer) will be teaching the next lecture? And also not unimportant, how do you translate your job title to English?

To help translate from Dutch to English, the Faculty of Social Sciences has developed an extensive guide with common Dutch university terms and their English equivalents. Although developed by the Faculty of Social Sciences, this guide should definitely be of use to other faculties.

You can access the document here: woordenlijst_nl-en.fsw_adaptations._june_2016 )

Alishia Williams