4. Administrative services to support inclusion

At the university as with any other multilingual and international workplace, it is necessary for all staff members to be able to access relevant information in a language they can understand if they are to feel part of the workplace and be able to carry out their work assignments in a safe and informed manner.

In general, UCPH follows the policy of parallel language use where “communication at and from the university should happen in the language (Danish or English) that is most relevant in the given situation – or in both languages if that is the most relevant and appropriate”.

The policy states that all important information from the Rector’s Office, the Central Administration and from the faculties that is relevant for all employees and/or all students at UCPH or at the individual faculty, including collaboration committees and other formal bodies, should be available in both Danish and English. Furthermore, the policy stresses that communication should be available in both Danish and English in situations where the audience is broad or its preferred language is unknown, and when the communication has an impact on:

• employees’ ability to carry out their tasks effectively
• employees’ ability to influence their workplace
• employees’ rights and obligations in relation to their conditions of employment
• social integration in the workplace.

You can read more about the policy for parallel language use on KU-net.

When the matter concerns administrative texts written in Danish that, for example, cover safety procedures in the laboratory, legislation regarding hiring of personnel or complaints guides for students, it is essential that this material is translated into accurate and understandable English in order to prevent mistakes and injuries. The translations of such juridical texts should be handled at the highest possible organizational level either inside or outside the university. This should be the responsibility of governmental authorities or the central communications office in Nørregade, at faculty or departmental level.

Administrative texts and regulations concerning student curricula or examination requirements are often handled by the respective faculty units and therefore translations are carried out by these units, but with support from the central unit for Education and Students.

Finally, when the matter concerns Danish administrative texts for internal use, for example, summaries of meetings, everyday planning of teaching and exams, internal correspondence, and newsletters, translations into English should of course be comprehensible for the recipients, but it is not always necessary to use skilled translators. It is often more important for local management or administration to communicate in a quick and inclusive manner to all staff members (and students) than having every detail in a given text translated precisely.

In those situations, it can be enough to include a short English version of the text if the text is written in Danish and cannot be translated in its full version. Conversely, the translation can be carried out by local management or staff members who are competent in using translation services and tools at the university.

In order to ensure efficient, joint, and coordinated translations of Danish administrative texts into English across the university, the first step is to identify which texts should be translated at which organizational level of the university. As mentioned, we would say that juridical texts should be translated at the highest organizational level as this legislation covers all of the university, and it is important that all units have the same understanding of the legislation.

Furthermore, it is necessary that all staff members at UCPH know about the translation services and tools provided by the university. At UCPH, the central communications office in Nørregade is responsible for translations to the central units close to the rector’s office, but the office also offers translation guides and access to joint translation tools for all staff members at the university.

These translations tools cover KU translate, which is a machine translation tool that has been adapted for UCPH, the university's own dictionary KUlex and the cloud-based commercial translation management system, Memsource, which can be accessed by skilled translators through a license (see Principle 1.4 for more information on these tools).

In addition to this, management at each faculty should discuss and identify the core elements or materials for the faculty to be translated as a priority by a skilled translator, if it is not already available in translation from the central office. These materials can include documents regulating exams and study programmes, and newsletters from the Dean or material for committee meetings.

Finally, management at department level should discuss the policy for language use and translations in the specific unit(s). This should also include the understanding of language as a means of communication that is not always 100% precise, as it depends on the language proficiency of the staff members.

In this process, it is important for management to communicate the policy for translations to staff members so that they know who to contact if they encounter material that they would like to have translated. We see this as part of an inclusive working environment where a minimum of information is given in both Danish and English and where it is acceptable to ask for more information when in doubt.

Most Danish staff members at UCPH have a certain level of English due to their educational background, but not everyone is used to communicating on a regular basis in English or to translate administrative or legal texts from Danish into English.

At CIP, we offer courses in English for administrative staff who wish to improve their English communicative competences. Furthermore, we offer translation services from Danish into English, as well as English proofreading services.

Our courses also help to feed information back into the system for future use across the university. We provide input for the KUlex database and use the Memsource platform for translations and thereby help ensure the standardisation of phrases and terminology across UCPH.

If you’re interested in knowing more about what we offer at CIP, please contact us at cip@hum.ku.dk or +45 35 32 86 39.

You can also find an overview of the translation services on KU-net.