Term query: Rector, prorector

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Thanks to all who commented both on- and off-list.

Genevra Gerhart wrote:

 > Surely President and Vice-President are the most suitable terms in
 > American English. Chancellor is a much bigger wig, with several sets
 > of campuses under him.

Sarah Hurst replied:

 > Well, in the University of Alaska system it's the opposite. The
 > president has several campuses under him around the state and the
 > chancellor is the head of one campus.

To clarify things, the institution in question is a free-standing
institute, not a university or part of a university system, and the
document I'm working on is a grade transcript.

However, the question comes up over and over again in my work, and I've
never been completely satisfied with my understanding of the terms, so
it will be useful to have guiding principles for making the decision. As
I'm sure you know, Russian and English terms do not often correspond
one-to-one, so it would be no surprise at all if "(pro)rector" were
sometimes better rendered as "(vice) president," sometimes as "(vice)
chancellor," etc.

One correspondent reminded me off-list that "the companies that certify
degree equivalence really like the translations submitted to them to be
as literal as possible." And in fact the guidelines from the medical
board demanded for a "word-for-word translation," and went on to explain
that "an abstract or summary translation... is not acceptable." Given
the second sentence, I take this to mean that they want a "complete and
accurate" translation, and that is what I intend to provide. Obviously,
a "word-for-word translation" is usually a bad translation, and as a
matter of ethics and company policy, I won't do that, and have so
informed my client.

--
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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