This year, the Pompeu Fabra University Faculty of Translation and Language Sciences is turning thirty. And it is doing so in the midst of a technological upheaval sparked, in large part, by the revolution in artificial intelligence (AI) and the emergence of applications such as ChatGPT, based on natural language technology. 

What does it mean to work in translation and interpreting or linguistics today? What fields can languages be applied in? Thirty years of growth and evolution allow us to grasp not only how teaching, research and knowledge transfer in this field have changed, but the entire university. 

Tomorrow’s language professionals are increasingly being trained in the use of technological tools and statistics, so they can work with the vast volumes of data afforded by the Internet, as well as in the fields of terminology and linguistics.

Thirty years of growth and evolution allow us to grasp not only how teaching, research and knowledge transfer in this field have changed, but the entire university.

The Faculty has managed to adapt to these changes, whilst at the same time preserving the essence of its original project, which was launched in the 1992-1993 academic year. From the start, it was understood that people who work in this field are, essentially, engaged in cultural mediation; they thus had to be imbued with the culture of the language of study. To this end, the original pioneering curriculum already included the requirement to spend at least one term abroad in a country in which the studied language was spoken. 

Propelled by the drive of its founding team, the faculty was able to continue expanding its activity. The generational renewal and incorporation of new teaching and research profiles has allowed it to become what it is today: a leading faculty, both nationally and internationally, in its field of knowledge.