Department of Languages and
Cross-Cultural Studies wins Award
The Department of Languages and Cross-cultural Studies
in the BaM Faculty has been voted as this year’s winner of the
Threlford Memorial Cup.
This cup is awarded annually by the renowned Chartered Institute
of Linguists for "fostering the study of languages".
Michael Scriven and Josef
Mueller receive Threlford Memorial Cup
The Chartered Institute of
Linguists, founded in 1910, is a language assessment body that
aims to promote the learning and use of modern languages and
improve the status of professional linguists. It offers vocational
qualifications in a wide selection of languages to meet the needs
of industry, commerce and the public services, among which the
Diplomas in Translation, in Public Service Interpreting, and the
Certificate in Bilingual Skills are highly respected
qualifications. The Institute has 6,500 Fellows, Members and
Associate Members throughout the world, and is actively involved in
language issues at both a national and an international level.
The award of the Threlford Memorial Cup has a long history,
having first been presented in 1935 by Lord Threlford, the founder
of the Institute of Linguists, who was, amongst other things,
Governor of Fiji.
Josef Mueller, Head of the Department, and Michael Scriven,
Director of EBSL, attended the prize-giving ceremony on the 18th of
November in Portland Place. The ceremony was held to award the
Institute’s various annual prizes to candidates who had achieved
outstanding results in the Institute’s examinations and had
travelled from all over the UK as well as from overseas to receive
their prizes.
The Institute also awards three general prizes, the most
prestigious of which is the Threlford Memorial Cup itself. Hilary
Maxwell-Hyslop, the Institute’s Director of Examinations, referred
to descriptions of the prize as “the world's greatest trophy for
fostering the study of languages” and “of marvellous beauty” when
she introduced this award. The actual prize was handed over by the
President of the Institute, Lady Brewer, who commended the European
Business School London and Regent’s College for giving the study of
languages the importance that it deserves in a globalised world.
The cup, enormous in size as it is, remains with the Institute, but
the College received a medal to keep, and the award will appear on
the Institute of Linguists’ website.