An extensive list of frequently asked questions about University Transcriptions and our services. If you have any questions you would like answering please email anna@tptranscription.co.uk and we would be happy to assist.
Company Information (23)
TP Transcription Limited was originally set up in 2001 as a subsidiary to Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited, a legal recruitment consultancy. We spotted a gap in the market in the East Midlands for a transcription company to assist with police station interviews and dictation. Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited was set up in 2000 with the guiding principle that it should always donate 10% of net profits to charity every year. For over 20 years the company has done just that and so has TP Transcription Limited. As part of the Ten Percent Group of websites we have contributed every year to the Ten Percent Foundation, a charitable trust, and two of our directors are trustees.
We think it is important to give a percentage of our profits back to society and, even though we are not a particularly large company, like to think that our donations however small can help to make a difference somewhere in the world. For details of the Ten Percent Foundation please click here.
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University Transcriptions is a trading name and the academic transcription arm of TP Transcription Limited, a transcription company, based in the UK offering transcription and translation services to clients around the world. Established in 2001, we have a team of over 110 trained and accredited transcribers available to assist you. To find out more about us please click here.
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Everybody and anybody! Since we started in 2001 we have probably assisted academics, researchers and students at just about every university in the UK as well as many around the world. We transcribe in every world language, as well as English to English, and also provide translation services. We are preferred suppliers to a number of universities as well as government organisations and NHS bodies. University Transcriptions is the academic arm of TP Transcription Limited, which deals with a wide range of clients. As a company we have worked for individuals, charities, small companies, large multi-national businesses, celebrities, politicians, rock stars, governments, market research companies, lawyers, architects, accountants, hospitals and many more. Testimonials from our clients are online here.
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UK & International Clients
Our file upload service is based in the UK (London), our company server is located in Denbighshire, North Wales, and our transcribers are based solely in the UK. Our secure email service is also UK based, so all communication is sent in the UK and does not leave the country at any time.
All English to English standard transcription remains in the UK at all times and no data is transferred overseas or stored offshore at any time in the process.
EU Clients
If you are an EU client all data will remain within the EU via our Dublin office, although at present the GDPR rules in both the UK and the EU are aligned, which means that data can travel between the two jurisdictions. If the systems diverge in future we are still able to provide the same level of service to our EU clients. Our EU office and website can be viewed here: www.tptranscription.ie
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All of our English to English transcribers are based in the UK and are native English speakers. We have offices in North Wales, London and Glasgow. Our office in Dublin works with Irish transcribers located on the island of Ireland, providing English to English transcription for our EU clients.
For UK clients this means that your data will not leave the UK at any time. We do not outsource work to overseas transcribers – we provide a specialist high quality academic transcription service to our clients.
Our translators are based around the world in varying locations, although we do have a number of translators who are UK based and work regularly with us on more mainstream assignments (eg German to English or Danish to French).
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As academic transcribers with almost 20 years experience we have covered just about everything and anything for staff and students at every university and academic institution in the UK and many more around the world. University Transcriptions is a website owned by TP Transcription Limited, a company undertaking every form of transcription and translation, in a wide range of sectors.
From television interviews in London to covert undercover recordings by government agencies in Liverpool. From research interviews in Canada with retired fishermen to magazine articles for politicians in Brussels, we’ve covered the lot since we started in 2001. We have worked on focus groups, interviews, conferences, Zoom meetings, podcasts, telephone calls, covert recordings, legal proceedings, medical dictation, medical research, architectural studies, last minute adjustments to theses, copy typing, Word document rescue and many more.
We have worked with accountants, lawyers, small businesses, multinational businesses, HR departments, market research organisations, political parties and think tanks, government institutions, medical practitioners, expert witnesses, teachers, students, researchers, academics, churches, sporting organisations and the occasional celebrity and rock band!
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We are corporate members of the Transcription Society, a UK based non-profit organisation for the accreditation of transcribers. Most of our transcribers are individual members as well, accredited to Standard, Advanced or Expert level.
We are members of the American Translators Association.
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We have an ISO9001:2015 compliant Quality Management System, an approved compliant ISO27001:2017 Information Security Management System and we operate a compliant ISO14001:2015 Environmental Management System.
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We hold the following insurance:
- Professional Indemnity Insurance to £5 million
- Public Liability Insurance to £5 million
- Employers Liability Insurance to £10 million.
If you would like to see our insurance certificates please contact us.
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TP stands for Ten Percent. We are part of the Ten Percent Group of websites donating 10% of our annual net profits to charity via the Ten Percent Foundation, a registered charitable trust in England and Wales. The money is distributed to various charities and community organisations in the UK and Africa. For details of the donations we make please click the link above for the Ten Percent Foundation.
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University Transcriptions is a website and registered trademark of TP Transcription Limited, a registered company in England and Wales. Our company registration number is 04946815. Our registered office address is Ty Brith, Llandegla Road, Llanarmon-yn-Ial, Mold CH7 4QX. You can verify our identity with Companies House here: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/04946815
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For our English to English transcription work we maintain a bank of 110 transcribers at Associate level. Our company has a further back up group of transcribers available as required. Most of our transcribers are accredited to the Transcription Society levels of Standard, Advanced or Expert (Jefferson transcription/discourse analysis) and have many years’ experience. Most are graduates and all are UK based and English native speakers. Our transcribers in other languages and translators are located around the world.
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Our company was officially incorporated in October 2003, but we have been around since 2001.
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Yes we do. We have NHS clients across the UK including Public Health Wales/Iechyd Cyhoeddus Cymru, NHS trusts, hospitals, individual medics and researchers. We have completed the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit assessment.
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Yes – our transcription manager and the company managing director, Anna Gresty, holds BPSS clearance. What is BPSS? It is the UK government Baseline Personnel Security Standard. We hold it because our company does highly confidential and secure work on behalf of government bodies from time to time.
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Yes we do. We are also a Living Wage Employer accredited by the Living Wage Foundation , Disability Confident committed and we have signed the Scottish Government Business Pledge.
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Yes – click the link below. A copy can be provided as a pdf or word document, on request.
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Yes – we are always happy to sign confidentiality undertakings and NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). We have an online system in place to complete one instantly via our e-signature software.
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Yes and no – some of our transcribers are DBS checked. If you need DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service – UK government scheme) checked transcribers just let us know when you place your order and we will ensure that only our DBS checked Associate Transcribers work on your order. Our Transcription Manager Anna Gresty is DBS checked and has BPSS (UK Baseline Personnel Security Standard) clearance.
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Yes. We are IASME GDPR Accredited (this means our data processing systems have been reviewed and found to comply with GDPR), we are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK and we hold Cyber Essentials and ISO27001 accreditation. We handle extremely sensitive recordings that require the highest levels of IT security. We provide the option of uploading digital files to UK based servers at no extra cost. This complies with the GDPR Regulations and ensures that your data handling fits within the data protection and security policies of most UK academic institutions, including the Cyber Essentials protocols. Your data will not leave the UK from the moment you upload your audio file through to receiving the completed transcription.
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Yes we are. We renew our Cyber Essentials certificate (number IASME-A-010868) every year with the IASME Consortium, a UK assessment company, and display it visibly on our website. We also obtain GDPR accreditation from the same company.
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Yes. We have been working with some of our clients for almost 20 years and we hold references from a number of them. Drop us a line if your organisation or company needs to see testimonials before placing an order and we will email them over. You can view brief testimonials online here.
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Prices (10)
No. We do not charge extra for background noise or poor quality recordings. We have specialist software that boosts particular frequencies and assists us to detect and extract the speech from a recording.
If the voices on the recording are completely inaudible we will let you know before commencing work and discuss options for accessing the audio and transcribing it.
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Click here for a list of our current prices and an instant quote. Personalised quotations available on request. Contact us for quotes for 50 hours of work or more.
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We invoice you once the work is complete. We do not ask for payment in advance. Payment methods include Visa Debit and Credit, MasterCard Debit and Credit, American Express, Paypal, Stripe, bank transfer and cheque.
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Unfortunately when it comes to transcription our prices are not set at a level where we are able to offer a discount to students and maintain a sufficient level of profit to resource the company. We offer some of the lowest prices in the UK for English to English transcription using native English speakers. Discounts are offered for bulk orders of 50 hours or more.
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No. We have transcribers with many years experience and expertise in transcribing strong regional accents and second language English speakers. Unlike a lot of our competitors we do not charge extra for transcribing strong accents. The same applies for our transcription services in other languages.
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Yes we do. If you need to raise a PO get in touch and we can provide a formal quote with the full cost of your transcriptions which makes completing a POR (purchase order request) form easier. For customers who are uploading files regularly we can send a quote at the end of each month for the total amount of files uploaded that month.
We are listed as a supplier on the purchasing systems of a number of government institutions, large companies and most universities.
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You do not need to open an account in order to send us transcription. We have no minimum order sizes (or maximum) and are as happy to accept an order for a 1 minute audio file as we are to work on a 10,000 hour 5 year project. We operate on a pay as you go basis. Place your order, upload your file and we will transcribe and return. We invoice once the work is complete. You are not tied in to our services at any time.
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Yes, absolutely. This option is very popular with our university clients who often need to get clearance for projects from their finance departments prior to budget deadlines. Simply estimate the size of your order and we can provide an invoice for payment in advance of recordings being made available for transcription. As you send us recordings to transcribe, we simply deduct it from the prepayment. Any difference is refunded or charged for, accordingly.
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Transcription (11)
We offer five levels of transcription, but the overwhelming majority of transcription work is completed to Level 3, “Intelligent Verbatim”. A description of each level is below.
Intelligent verbatim is suitable for all dictation, interviews, focus groups, legal proceedings, meetings, conferences, telephone calls, Zoom meetings and podcasts.
Level 4 “Strict Verbatim” is only really suitable for conversational analysis work (ie you are studying the speech patterns of the speakers) and Level 5 “Discourse Analysis” is a more in depth version of this requiring transcribers with training and experience.
A quick explanation of each level is below.
Level 1 – Fully Edited Transcript – the transcriber will transcribe the main parts of each sentence, and make informed decisions on what to leave in and what to take out in order to retain the structure of the sentence but shorten wherever possible and adjusted if necessary, adding words in to complete sentences etc..
Level 2 – Lightly Edited Transcript – edited by the transcriber for readability and clarity. Here the transcriber will transcribe the exact words but leave out any pauses, hesitations or sounds.
Level 3 – Intelligent Verbatim Transcript – certain elements are omitted if they add no meaning to the script. This is mainly ums, errs and repetitions and false starts. This is the level used for most transcription work – it is recommended for research interviews, group discussions and focus groups.
Level 4 – True (or Strict) Verbatim Transcript – a complete record of every sound or utterance on the recording, which will include coughs, stutters, false starts, any “erms” and “ahhs”. Useful where a researcher is analysing conversation or language.
Level 5 – Discourse Analysis (or Jefferson transcription) – Level 5 “Discourse Analysis” is a more in-depth version of Level 4, requiring transcribers with training and experience. For details and an explanation of symbols used in this type of transcription, please click here.
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We are happy to handle any orders of any size, from a small 30 second file through to bulk orders of 50,000 hours or more of recordings. Whilst you may not get your 50,000 hours of recordings back within 14 days, we can still assist.
Our company has worked on many large research projects for a number of years at a time, providing our transcription services continually as required. We have the capacity to upscale our service at any time to cover your work regardless of its size.
If you have a large ongoing project of hundreds or thousands of hours of recording, please feel free to get in touch with our Managing Director directly to discuss how we can help and make everything run as smoothly as possible.
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Intelligent Verbatim Transcription is a level of transcription that leaves the process of transcribing an audio recording to a certain amount of discretion by the transcriber. Our expert transcribers will use their experience to omit certain elements if they add no meaning to the script. This is mainly ums, errs and repetitions and false starts. This is the level used for most transcription work – it is recommended for research interviews, group discussions and focus groups. For an audio recording and transcript example of intelligent verbatim transcription please click here.
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We can handle anything from one minute through to 500,000 minutes or more. For a full explanation of our capacity, please click the link here https://www.tptranscription.co.uk/ufaqs/how-much-capacity-have-you-got-for-transcription-work/
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We can work with most Digital Audio Formats including:
AAC
ACT
AIFC (Compressed AIFF)
AIFF
AMR
APE
AU
CAF (Apple Core Audio Format)
DCT (Express Dictate, MSRS, etc.)
DS2 (DSS Pro)
DSS (Grundig, Olympus, Philips recorder)
DSP TrueSpeech
DVF (Sony recorder)
DVS (Royal recorder)
FLAC
OGG
M4A
MP2
MP3
MPC
MSV (Sony recorder)
QCP
RA / RM (RealAudio)
SHN
SPX
VOC
VOX
WAV (Including ADPCM, aLaw, GSM 6.10,
PCM, and uLaw codecs)
WMA
We can work with most Digital Video Formats including:
3G2
3GP
ASF
AVI
DivX
DV
FLV
M4V
MKV
MOV
MP4
MPEG
VOB
WMV
If you have another format please get in touch to ask if we can assist. We do have software to convert older and rare file formats into something accessible.
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We ask all our clients to notify us if the content of their recordings contains anything that they think is potentially triggering or contains potentially upsetting material.
Our transcribers make us aware of any topics they want to personally avoid exposure to, and we make sure wherever possible that they are not sent any recordings that relate to these. We also have a policy of reallocating files immediately if transcribers decide that subject matter is not suitable for them.
This policy is to ensure we do our upmost to protect the wellbeing of our transcribers and does not impact on our clients, usually because we are already aware of the issues individual transcribers do not want to be exposed to. Our full policy and guidance on trigger warnings is here: https://universitytranscriptions.co.uk/trigger-warnings-content-notifications/
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Yes – we can transcribe extracts from audio files. When you upload your file, just specify the start point and end point in the recording that you need transcribing. So for example if your file is 45 minutes long and you only want part of the recording transcribed, you would add the following instruction: “transcribe from 5 minutes 35 seconds to 24 minutes 20 seconds.”
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University Transcriptions provide an encrypted email solution to all our clients, which means that when you send us recordings using our military grade SSL secure file upload service you can be guaranteed that your recordings will be kept with the tightest cyber security possible. Once the transcripts of the audio recordings have been completed these will be sent back to you via email, but not just any email. We use Egress Protect encrypted email, which means that the email is sent via the Egress servers and encrypted at the point it is sent, and decrypted at the point you receive it. Egress is used by the NHS, governments, a large number of universities and NATO.
For a full article on our encrypted email solution and more information about Egress Protect, please read this article: https://www.tptranscription.co.uk/how-do-we-communicate-securely-by-email-with-you/
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Absolutely not. Whilst this may sound like we are a bunch of Luddites, the automated transcription technology is simply not good enough to process high quality transcription work using intelligent verbatim. For simple dictation Dragon Dictation and many other pieces of software have been around for over 25 years and function perfectly well. Unfortunately for interviews, focus groups and other types of transcription the AI option is not yet available. Most of our transcription work is one to one discussions, interviews and other types of recording and can involve background noise, hard to hear voices and strong accents. Automated transcription does not even get near to dealing with these.
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Yes we do. For full details of the different options available and to request a quote, please click here. This service is fully bespoke.
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University transcripts, or academic transcripts, are the results of academic study that culminate in the award of a degree by an academic institution.
Transcripts are also the written text version of audio or video recordings, prepared by transcribers working for a transcription company.
As specialists at preparing academic transcripts of audio and video recordings, we are very happy to assist with the latter, but we cannot help you obtain a transcript of your degree and academic results.
For further advice, including a list of university contacts, please visit our advice page https://universitytranscriptions.co.uk/university-transcripts-and-how-to-get-them/
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Translation (1)
We provide transcription services for any world language. If we are transcribing the spoken word in an audio recording into the same language as it sounds, then the work is transcription. If we are transcribing into a different language the work is translation.
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Upload Files (6)
University Transcriptions provide an encrypted email solution to all our clients, which means that when you send us recordings using our military grade SSL secure file upload service you can be guaranteed that your recordings will be kept with the tightest cyber security possible. Once the transcripts of the audio recordings have been completed these will be sent back to you via email, but not just any email. We use Egress Protect encrypted email, which means that the email is sent via the Egress servers and encrypted at the point it is sent, and decrypted at the point you receive it. Egress is used by the NHS, governments, a large number of universities and NATO.
For a full article on our encrypted email solution and more information about Egress Protect, please read this article: https://www.tptranscription.co.uk/how-do-we-communicate-securely-by-email-with-you/
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To use our simple online file upload system for files smaller than 1GB each, please click here. The upload facility is SSL Encrypted.
Click here for alternative options, including our UK GDPR compliant server, Dropbox, WeTransfer, One Drive, Google Drive, Whatsapp, email and post.
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It is good security policy not to share a password via the same method as the link. If you upload via the UK based server there is no need to share the link password as we can access it. If you are using your own university server and want to share your password then you can phone the office or WhatsApp the password so that you are not using the same method as the audio file.
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Yes. We are listed as users on some university systems, for example OxFiles (the large file upload service from the University of Oxford) and UCL Data Safe Haven (University College London). You will need to contact your IT department to ask them to give us access or login details.
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Yes. Click the link below for a range of options. We can accept files using Dropbox, WeTransfer, OneDrive, Google Drive, Whatsapp, email, post, courier and a number of university server upload options (eg Oxfile – the University of Oxford large file exchange service).
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Work for us (2)
We ask all our clients to notify us if the content of their recordings contains anything that they think is potentially triggering or contains potentially upsetting material.
Our transcribers make us aware of any topics they want to personally avoid exposure to, and we make sure wherever possible that they are not sent any recordings that relate to these. We also have a policy of reallocating files immediately if transcribers decide that subject matter is not suitable for them.
This policy is to ensure we do our upmost to protect the wellbeing of our transcribers and does not impact on our clients, usually because we are already aware of the issues individual transcribers do not want to be exposed to. Our full policy and guidance on trigger warnings is here: https://universitytranscriptions.co.uk/trigger-warnings-content-notifications/
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When we are recruiting we post an advertisement for Associate Transcribers on our website at this address.
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