Following a period of gestation lasting over a year, during which there was wide consultation with a small group of technical writers, the new MA Technical Communication offered by the University of Portsmouth was validated in March of this year. The first intake of students is expected in October 2006.

The new degree scheme distinguishes itself from existing providers in a number of ways. Firstly, it is the only postgraduate degree programme in technical communication which is available in the southern region of the UK. Secondly, it is classroom-based, and offered in both full-time and part-time mode over a period of one or two years respectively. Thirdly, it has a number of attractive design features.

The degree is a joint venture between the School of Languages and Area Studies (SLAS) of the Faculty of Humanities and the Department of Creative Technologies (DCT) of the Faculty of Technology. The two departments contribute two core modules each: the content modules are delivered by SLAS (Technical Discourse: theory and practice and Communicating with Different Audiences) and the delivery modules by DCT (Electronic Publishing and Multimedia Communication). It is also envisaged that other modules or part-modules will be delivered by professional technical writers with teaching experience and academics from other Departments or Schools within the University with technical communication expertise.

A key feature of the new programme is the Project module which is based on a technical communication project negotiated with a local/regional company. This replaces the Dissertation and serves to underline the vocational orientation of the degree scheme. Students are prepared for the Project, both practically and analytically, through participation in the Managing the Project module which is offered in the preceding semester. The depth which is achieved through engagement in the Project is complemented by a range of technical communication tasks which are offered in the Writing to Inform and Writing to Persuade modules, enabling the student to familiarise him/herself with technical communication across a range of sectors, from the software industry, engineering and electronics on the one hand to banking, financial services and the public sector on the other. The modules will be jointly delivered by professionals, for example, from the local IBM UK headquarters and Lockheed Martin, and academics from the Department of Human Resource & Marketing Management, among others.

A further opportunity for the involvement of professional technical communicators in the degree programme is afforded by the Professional Aspects of Technical Communication module, which aims to maximise the opportunities for students to meet a variety of professional technical writers and representatives of the professional bodies and thereby learn about the profession as it is currently practised.

The programme also caters for the bilingual student through the Technical Translation module. Already there are early discussions on the development of a programme in Technical Communication and Translation. (469)

The course has been primarily designed as a conversion programme to prepare students from a variety of backgrounds for entry into the profession. Applications are welcome from potential students with either a humanities or business background or a scientific or technical one. Applications from individuals wishing to enter the profession as a second career are particularly welcome. Professional technical
communicators wishing to enhance their professional qualifications are also catered for through the flexibility offered by work-based learning schemes. (551)

.To promote the programme, two taster days are being organised in the Spring of 2006, again with support from professional technical communicators. Opportunities for collaboration between academia and the profession are being preliminarily discussed at a meeting in Portsmouth in December, 2005.

Details of the programme can be found at www.port.ac.uk/slas-postgrad

Ian Kemble
Course Leader
29th November 2005