The Assembly was held as a virtual conference. Representatives of Consortium member universities discussed a wide range of topics, but, first and foremost, how different universities had adapted interpreter training to the online format, what resorses were used and what steps they are to take to become more resilient in the face of any other challenges of today.

There was a consensus that the pandemic has transformed the nature of interpreting. Practitioners had to test and adapt existing software to the needs of remote interpreting on the fly, and many technological solutions are yet to be developed.

Such major shifts were bound to impact interpreter training. In the previous academic year, the School was able to leverage solutions offered by KUDO and GoReact to continue teaching translation and interpreting through the entirety of the lockdown. In the new academic year, the School was not only able to welcome new students—which is already something, as some Consortia members were not able to reopen—but also to use the online mode to incorporate students who cannot currently attend classes because of circumstances beyond their control.
“SCIT is optimistic about the future,” Angelique Antonova comments. “We hope that Herzen University will soon have even more reasons to be proud of the School’s graduates.”