This paper sits within an “educating for society” paradigm, in which undergraduate and postgraduate translation programmes at university are understood to fulfil more than a purely vocational purpose. It is within this context that student mobility programmes are first analyzed with a view to describing the benefits mobile and non-mobile students obtain from them, drawing on data compiled in a major research project into student and staff perceptions of mobility programmes. The paper proceeds to question the traditional academic procedures used for the recognition of study-abroad periods in some contexts. As an alternative approach to the issue, mobility programmes will be taken to contribute per se to the development of both specific translation and transferable generic competences. An attempt is made to define the learning outcomes to be expected from mobility programmes on translation courses, and a proposal is suggested for assessment of the degree to which these outcomes are achieved.