UGRTerm, the bilingual resource (Spanish-English) that was officially launched in 2018, contains the official terminology of the University of Granada. It is designed to regulate the use of the institution’s nomenclature, such as the names of positions, degrees, services, offices, programmes and plans. Moreover, UGRTerm includes a significant number of terms related to research and higher education, as well as cross-cutting terms that are frequently used in this sector.
This language resource, which is pioneering in the international university context, aims to facilitate and streamline the standardisation and homogenisation of the official terms used at the UGR, both in English and in Spanish. The primary objective of this tool is to support all members of the university community (teaching and research staff; technical, management, administrative and support staff; and students) in the drafting and translation of content and documents that are produced on a daily basis in the higher education sector. Conceived as a centralised and open-access resource, it currently contains more than 50,000 terms and over 22,000 entries.
The UGRTerm home page https://ugrterm.ugr.es/en/
Repository of UGR Administrative Documents (ES-EN)
The UGR Guide for the Standardisation of Administrative Documentation was published by the former Vice-Rectorate for Institutional Policy and Planning in 2021. Since then, templates and models in Spanish have been adapted to the recommendations included in the Guide and have been made available to the public via the Repository of UGR Administrative Documents. These templates are specific to the academic and administrative context of the University of Granada and their purpose is to foster a coordinated and coherent image of the institution.
As part of this initiative, the Vice-Rectorate for Internationalization, through the Language Services Unit (USL), has carried out the translation and linguistic adaptation of more than 70 of these administrative templates to make it easier for all UGR staff to prepare institutional documents in English. These templates (ES-EN) are now available on the Language Resources Portal.
Example of the administrative templates (ES-EN) available on the Portal
Regulations, policies and plans in English
The USL is the institutional translation and revision service of the UGR. One of its main lines of action is the translation of institutional regulations, plans and strategies, with a view to making relevant UGR rules, guidelines and policies available to our international community in English. More than 20 regulatory and policy documents, which have been fully or partially translated by the USL, are currently available for download through the Language Resources Portal. They cover a wide range of topics, including international mobility, academic management, student assessment and grading, and support for students with SEN. Likewise, key UGR documents that have been translated into English have also been added, such as ethical codes, research policies, and an abridged version of the UGR 2031 Strategic Plan.
Abridged version of the UGR 2031 Strategic Plan
Along the same lines, the UGRTerm team has also incorporated official translations for the names of over 400 institutional regulations and other regulated elements of the UGR into English, including protocols, codes, regulations, plans and resolutions.
Names of the UGR’s partner universities
In addition, the names of many of the UGR‘s partner universities have been added to UGRTerm not only in Spanish and English, but also in their original language. In these multilingual entries, UGRTerm uses a note to indicate which terms correspond to the original language. For certain universities and contexts, it is becoming increasingly common to use the names of institutions in their original language (e.g. when submitting grant applications within European and international calls for proposals, as well as in administrative documents, reports, press releases, and science news).
Entry for a partner university of the UGR (ES, FR and EN)
Data on impact and international reach
All of these actions, aimed at improving the quality of the institutional language used at the UGR, are intended to achieve the primary objective of the UGR Language Policy, which is to boost the UGR’s internationalization process both internally and through our international relations. By facilitating the production of clearer and more coherent contents and documents, this resource enhances the institutional transparency and corporate image of the University of Granada.
The international reach and impact of this resource therefore contributes to the consolidation of the University’s image. In this regard, the success of UGRTerm is supported by reviews such as that published by the European Parliament’s Terminology Coordination Unit, «UGRTerm terminology resource now features over 40,000 terms in English and Spanish«, as well as through its inclusion among the resources recommended by the Spanish-Language Department of the EU’s Directorate General for Translation. Moreover, the usage statistics provided by Google Analytics are further evidence of the tool’s success.
From 01/01/2018 (the year of its launch) to 31/12/2023, the tool had 70,600 users. In 2023, 75,000 pages were visited on UGRTerm, with 268,000 user interactions. It is important to note that, during the Christmas, Easter and August holiday periods, the number of visits tends to drop considerably. This suggests that it is being used as a working tool within the academic environment, thereby contributing to the advancement of the target groups at which it is aimed.
No. of site visits and interactions in 2023
Lastly, it should be noted that, although a sizeable proportion of UGRTerm users access the platform from Spain (8,573 from 01/01/2023 to 07/03/2024), the tool also has consolidated user groups in countries with which the UGR maintains close ties (e.g. USA, Mexico, Italy, Colombia, United Kingdom, Chile, France and Germany).
Top 5 countries in terms of users (01/01/2023 to 07/03/2024)
The ongoing development of UGRTerm is funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Internationalization within the framework of the UGR Language Policy. It is also part of the UGR Internationalization Strategy.
Contact details:
Silvia Montero Martínez (Director for Language Services and Resources).
Email: @email
Language Services Unit (USL)
Email: @email
