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A brand new interpreting lab with equipment to match the professional standard of that found in the European Commission, the United Nations and the Houses of Parliament has been opened at the University of Essex. 

The new state-of-the-art lab, which has 10 booths and can interpret conferences for up to 20 delegates, has been built in response to the popularity of the Department of Language and Linguistics’ three Masters programmes in interpreting, translation and subtitling.

It was officially declared officially open by Paul Kaye from the European Commission in the presence of the University's Vice Chancellor, Professor Anthony Forster, Professor David Sanders, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and an invited audience of staff, students and members of the business community. 

Designed with interpreting booths surrounding a conference table, the new lab is intended to complement the University’s current larger conference style interpreting facility which can host up to 350 delegates. Combined, these facilities are unique in the East of England.

Professor Roger Hawkins, Executive Dean for the Social Sciences, said “Not only will the new lab further enhance our teaching excellence by giving our students the chance to train on equipment of an extremely high specification, it will also serve as a fantastic resource for businesses and organisations wishing to host international conferences.

“Essex can now offer regionally unrivalled facilities in conjunction with the expertise of our language and linguistics staff and students who have the ability to interpret between Mandarin Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Indeed, a number of our students have already worked with organisations including Essex County Fire Service and Essex County Council via its links with Jiangsu province in China.”

Wivenhoe House, a four-star country house hotel, is situated next door to the new interpreting lab, boosting its appeal as an international conference venue.

Essex is one of the few universities in the UK where training in interpreting is combined with training in translation and subtitling. The Department of Language and Linguistics is currently ranked top 10 in the UK for research quality.