Development of Translation Curricula at Undergraduate Translation Courses in Saudi Universities: Exploring Student Needs and Market Demands

This thesis focuses on the relationship between undergraduate translation curricula on the one hand, and students’ needs and market demands on the other hand, using translator training in Saudi Arabia as an example. This case study provides strong support for the argument that market demands and student needs should be reflected in the curriculum of translation training courses. There is a shortage of research on the relationship between translation curriculum design and situational context, and the recommendations of my study are generalizable to other locations, especially those where translator education is still a relatively new subject of study. The tools used in this study are extended questionnaires of three stakeholder groups: (i) final-year students following translation courses at three universities in Saudi Arabia, King Saud University, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University and Effat University; (ii) translation instructors teaching translation at those universities; and (iii) translators working in the Saudi translation market. The questionnaires administered to students and instructors enabled me to identify their perceptions of the needs of students and the market, while the questionnaires administered to translators working as professionals in the market enabled me to identify both the actual needs of the market and professionals’ view of the translation courses and their graduates. Follow-up interviews with a fourth important group of stakeholders, namely curriculum decision makers in translation departments, were conducted once I had identified the students’ needs and the demands of the market, and the thesis discusses the relationships between the views of all four stakeholder groups. It is my hope that the study will contribute to enhancing the development of curricula in undergraduate translation courses.