Contemporary translator education increasingly emphasises experiential and situated learning, yet the transition from academic training to professional practice remains one of the most significant challenges in the field (Kiraly & Massey, 2019; Torres-Simón & Pym, 2019). While simulated translation bureaus have attracted considerable scholarly attention, fully situated professional learning, in which students collaborate within international teams under real institutional conditions, remains underexplored. This paper addresses that gap through a case study of a student translation project conducted in cooperation between universities affiliated with the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) network and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT).
A distinctive and timely feature of the project was that students worked within a professional translation environment (Trados Live), managing their translations through the system, but the use of machine translation was prohibited: students translated entirely without AI assistance so that their output could later serve as a human benchmark against which AI-based tools are evaluated. This design placed technology at the centre of the project not as a tool students used, but as the absent comparator that shaped how they experienced and made sense of their own translation practice. Rather than comparing student and AI output directly, the project positioned students’ unaided judgment and skill as the implicit standard against which the promise of automation could be assessed. Accordingly, the present paper provides the empirical basis for examining how students relate to AI-driven change in the profession.
Grounded in action research methodology (Piotrowska, 2013), the study draws on survey data collected from Polish students participating in the DGT-supported project at selected EMT universities, described in detail in Sánchez-Gijón et al. (2026). The survey specifically asked students how they experienced translating without machine-translation support: their sense of professional identity as human translators, the stress and confidence associated with meeting professional standards unaided by algorithmic tools, and the didactic value of authentic translation tasks embedded in a professional institutional context.
Preliminary findings suggest that students experienced their role as a human benchmark for AI as motivating and professionally affirming. Elevated stress connected with deadlines, quality assessment, and accountability toward external stakeholders was largely perceived as productive, reinforcing students’ confidence in their own competence and sharpening, by contrast with automated alternatives, their sense of what human translators distinctively contribute.
The paper offers empirical insight into how students, working explicitly as the human standard against which AI is measured, come to understand their professional identity at the intersection of humanistic values and technological transformation – and why the human translator remains not just relevant, but essential.
References:
Kiraly, D., & Massey, G. (2019). Towards Authentic Experiential Learning in Translator Education (2nd edition ed.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=8252a4fa-bdf0-3626-a3ca-ae4ba1a65399
Piotrowska, M. (2013). Action Research in Translation Studies. Między Oryginałem a Przekładem, 19(1/2(19/20)), 155-169. https://doi.org/10.12797/moap.19.2013.19-20.11
Sánchez-Gijón, P., Valdez, S., Kokkinidou, A., Bellemont, F., Calvo Del Barrio, S., & Brasoveanu, M. C. (2026). Building a European Multilingual Evaluation Dataset: The MMLU Localisation Project within the EMT Network. 3rd International Conference on New Trends in Translation and Interpreting Technology, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Torres-Simón, E., & Pym, A. (2019). European Masters in Translation. A comparative study. In D. B. Sawyer, F. Austermühl, & V. E. Raído (Eds.), The Evolving Curriculum in Interpreter and Translator Education (pp. 75-97). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ata.xix
Katarzyna Wasilewska is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, where she researches and teaches economic and financial translation and coordinates the Institute's participation in the European Master's in Translation (EMT) network. She participated in projects on administrative and financial language and (co-)authored articles regarding EU and financial translation.
Małgorzata Kodura is a certified Polish-English translator and a translator trainer, working as Assistant Professor at the University of the National Education Commission, Krakow. She is staff member of the Chair of Translation Education, whose translation programme is included in European Master’s in Translation network. She teaches practical courses in translation technologies, audiovisual translation, audiodescription and transcreation. Her research interests focus on translator training for the digital age and on creativity in translation.
