Chinese Academic Transcript Translation for UK Universities

Start with the point that catches out most first-time applicants. In mainland China, finishing a degree produces two separate certificates, not one. The 毕业证书 graduation certificate records that you completed the programme; the 学位证书 degree certificate records that the degree was conferred, and names the chair of the degree committee. They have different certificate numbers, different seals, and are physically different booklets — and it is entirely possible to hold one without the other, which is exactly why a receiving institution asks to see both. A 结业证书, by contrast, is a certificate of completion and is not a graduation certificate at all; translating it as one would misstate your qualification. Each certificate is priced as its own document.

Transcripts are issued by the 教务处 academic affairs office under a red institutional seal, often in a sealed envelope with a 骑缝章 straddling seal across the flap, which is worth photographing before you open it. The body is a table of 课程名称, 学分, 成绩 and the term each module was taken in. Grades appear in several systems: percentages out of 100; the five bands 优, 良, 中, 及格, 不及格; plain 通过 or 不通过; and grade points on a 4.0 or 5.0 scale, sometimes two of these side by side on the same sheet.

I translate the grading scale; I do not convert your grades. Where the transcript prints a key — and many print it on the reverse — I render it exactly as it stands, so the reader can see for themselves that 85 falls in the 优 band, or that a 5.0 scale is in use. What I will not do is restate a Chinese average as a UK 2:1 or an American GPA. Comparing qualifications across education systems is credential evaluation, and it belongs to UK ENIC or to the admissions office reading your file; a translator who does it is adding a claim the original never made. If your transcript prints no scale at all, I say so in a translator’s note rather than importing one from elsewhere.

The remaining care goes into details that are easy to get wrong at speed. Institution names are given in the university’s own registered English form where it has one, rather than a fresh translation that will not match the admissions system. Module titles are rendered consistently and literally, general-education courses included. 学分 credits and 学时 taught hours are different figures and stay apart, as do 必修 compulsory and 选修 elective modules. Levels are not interchangeable: 专科, 本科, 硕士 and 博士 each mean something specific. Names follow the passport spelling and the passport order. CHSI (CSSD) online verification reports can be issued in English, so check whether your recipient will take the English report before paying for a translation; if you only have a Chinese report, I translate it with the verification code reproduced exactly so the recipient can check it.

Send colour scans or flat, well-lit photographs of every document, front and back — the reverse of a transcript usually carries the grading key, and certificate booklets often have text inside the cover, and both get missed. Include every page of a multi-page transcript, give me the passport spelling of your name, and say who the documents are going to, because an admissions office, ENIC and an employer do not always want the same set. If you are applying to a UK university, this guide to what Chinese applicants are usually asked for covers the wider paperwork. If something needs adjusting after you have seen the draft — a name spelling, a module title — that is part of the service, not a new order, and notarisation can be added where a recipient asks for it.

For the document-specific UK requirements, see my academic transcript guide.