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Studies & Degrees in Language and Communication Technologies

Language and communication technologies are the methods that let computers work with human language, written or spoken: machine translation, speech recognition and synthesis, search engines, chatbots and voice assistants, spelling and grammar checkers. The academic field behind them is known as computational linguistics or natural language processing (NLP). The Association for Computational Linguistics defines computational linguistics as the scientific study of language from a computational perspective.

The subject sits between two disciplines, and degrees draw on both. The European master's programme that carries the name, Language and Communication Technologies (LCT), has students combine modules in language technology, computational and theoretical linguistics, and computer science. In practice that means programming, machine learning and statistics on one side, and syntax, semantics and phonetics on the other. The Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) puts it the same way: the field needs people from computer science and engineering as well as from philology and linguistics.

Qualifications and levels

The subject is taught mainly at master's level. Students usually arrive from a bachelor's degree in linguistics, computer science, artificial intelligence or a related field.

  • Erasmus Mundus LCT. A 2-year double degree taught in English. Each student spends one year at each of two universities of the consortium and receives two master's degrees, one from each country. Since September 2025 the programme is delivered by five partner universities, among them the University of Groningen, where it is part of the Research Master Linguistics, and the UPV/EHU.
  • One-year master's degrees. The University of Groningen offers an MSc in Speech Technology at its Campus Fryslân in Leeuwarden and a master's programme in Information Science, focused on applications such as conversational agents, automatic translation systems and intelligent search engines. Each lasts 12 months and has 60 credits.
  • Master's degrees in Spain. Official master's degrees have 60, 90 or 120 ECTS credits. The Master in Language Analysis and Processing of the UPV/EHU has 90 credits, lasts a year and a half and is taught in English at the Faculty of Informatics.
  • Doctorate. The UPV/EHU master's gives direct access to its doctoral programme in the same field.

Admission depends on the first degree. For Speech Technology, Groningen gives direct access to graduates in linguistics, artificial intelligence or computer science and assesses other backgrounds individually. Programmes are taught in English, so proof of English is normally required.

Where to study it

The directory lists 10 active schools under this subject: 3 in Spain, 2 in the United Kingdom, 2 in Italy and 1 each in the Netherlands, India and Russia. Among them is the University of Groningen. Several of the others are language schools, which teach a language and not language technology, so check what each school offers before applying.

Costs vary with the programme and with nationality. The LCT programme lists tuition fees of €4,250 per year for EU students and €8,500 per year for non-EU students; Erasmus Mundus scholarships were available for the 2020 to 2023 intakes, so ask the consortium what funding exists for the current intake. At Groningen the fee for the MSc in Speech Technology in the 2026-27 academic year is €2,694 for EU/EEA students and €22,200 for non-EU/EEA students. The UPV/EHU gives approximate fees of €3,000 for its master's.

Careers

Graduates work on language products in technology companies, in translation and language-service firms, and in research. The LCT programme says it prepares professionals for work in natural language processing, artificial intelligence, deep learning and related fields. The UPV/EHU lists roles such as designing multilingual applications for companies and institutions, building dictionaries, corpora and other language resources, and specialising in automatic translation or voice processing. Groningen mentions software engineer, application developer, IT consultant, researcher and teacher for its Information Science graduates.

There are no official employment statistics for language technology alone. The closest category of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is computer and information research scientists, who typically need at least a master's degree in computer science or a related field; their employment in the United States is projected to grow 22 percent from 2025 to 2035.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know how to program before starting?

It depends on the programme. Master's degrees in this field admit both linguists and computer scientists, and Groningen assesses other backgrounds individually. Ask the university which programming and mathematics level it expects from applicants with a language degree.

How long does a master's take?

Between one and two years. The Groningen programmes last 12 months, the UPV/EHU master's a year and a half, and the Erasmus Mundus LCT double degree 2 years.

Is this the same as studying languages?

No. The subject is about building and evaluating software that processes language, not about learning to speak one. A language school does not teach it.

In which language are the programmes taught?

The programmes named here are taught in English, including the master's of the UPV/EHU in Spain.