Dundee's University of Abertay plans large-scale games expansion after Scottish Government grant
A £3 million investment from the Scottish Government will help the University of Abertay Dundee build what it describes as 'the first UK Centre for Computer Games Excellence'.
Abertay University is already widely regarded as one of the best in the UK for studying games development given that it is runs two of the now five Skillset-accredited courses for gaming studios. The university is also responsible for the Dare to be Digital competition, and last year won a Develop Industry Excellence Award for its contribution to education in the UK.
With the new investment Abertay will develop two new industry designed post graduate MSc courses dedicated to games - plus a teaching and learning space to accommodate them.
The masters programme will be based on Dare to be Digital, with 40 graduates housed in a purpose-designed professional environment for a 12-month course.
It is hoped the course will help create actual ideas for both games and serious games-style software with real world application.
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Abertay’s principal and vice-chancellor Professor Bernard King said: “The global, interactive, creative media sector has a potential market value to Scotland of up to $68 billion by 2012. If in Scotland we are to be successful in reaping that economic growth potential, then we need to be continually producing new interactive products and upgrading our workforce’s skills.
“This significant capacity-building investment by the Scottish Government establishes Abertay as Scotland's University Centre of Excellence in Computer Games Education. It recognises that Scotland can be a global leader in this sector, and that Abertay can drive that ambition by providing graduates with the necessary world-class skills to succeed.”
“At Abertay, we are both confident and ambitious about the part Scotland can play in this fast-changing, global marketplace. We believe that there is a great deal more we can do to build upon Scotland's illustrious heritage in communication technologies and the creative industries, and that we can continue to contribute both knowledge and innovation, in order to support Scotland's creative industries in taking the very centre of this valuable, world stage."
Abertay has now also been accredited by Skillset as a Media Academy.
Paul Harris, Professor of Screen Media at Abertay added: “This major new investment by the Scottish Government is recognition of a combination of hard work from staff in establishing a portfolio of courses that are world standard, and the long term support of a number of industrial partners including: Realtime Worlds, BBC Scotland, BBC New Media, BSkyB, Channel 4, Electronic Arts, Blitz, Sony Entertainment Europe, Microsoft, Disney Interactive Media, and many others.
“Not only does this accreditation acknowledge the prowess of our courses but going forward, it will provide recognition of the value and impact that our graduates can have when entering the computer games and interactive media workforces. Past graduates have gone on to work for leading animation companies such as Aardman and Disney while many have set up their own companies, with good success rates.”
Found some errors.
1. Abertay University is not a "college" ;)
2. There are 3 accredited institutions, Abertay has two course accredited, thus making 4 courses accredited. - http://www.skillset.org/games/accreditation/approved/" onclick="window.open ( this.href ); return false;" class="comment_url" >http://www.skillse...oved/
Thanks
Craig
Indeed. Especially point number 2.
Good to see more evidence and effort against that tripe from the Sony executive and the haughty attitudes in a lot of the UK Games Industry, concerning UK games graduates.
I'm sick of so many of them saying 'minimum experience required', slamming a lot of UK graduates, and alongside all that complaining about an ageing industry.
Well, another step in the right direction by Abertay.
Somewhat arrogant however to claim to try and build the 'first UK centre of excellence'. Teesside has the other Skillset accredited courses; has been running games degree's longer; runs 'Animex' which is one of the best Games and Animation festivals going; just built 3 brand new state-of-the-art studios; and is looking to set up a masters course in conjunction with Ubisoft by this October, where candidates study for the masters part time whilst working in a full job in the indsutry.
That's examples of a centre of excellence in my opinion, they're arguably the best institution in the UK and they're not grabbing publicity for it all the time.
Credit to Abertay for continuing to build, as I don't want to diminish the efforts of what is an outstanding University for games, but a bit of recent media over the last few months is painting a portrait that they are trying to put themslves out their as heads and shoulders above everyone else, which isn't the case.
Back on to what they're doing though, more graduates going straight to industry with good portfolio's, and outdated attitudes realising talent+enthusiasm > experience, is a great thing.
Thanks for the points Craig - I'll correct the point about the courses. But on the colleges point... well, there are only so many decent synonyms for university ;)
> there are only so many decent synonyms for university
...indeed there are, and 'college' certainly isn't one of them. At least not in this country, and certainly not in this context.
Many thanks to Howi_A for his positive comments about Abertay's new development and its track record. However, I must correct a couple of things he says: Abertay was indeed the first university in the UK to offer both undergraduate (launched in 1998) and postgraduate (launched in 1997) degrees specifically in computer games technology (not mainstream degrees with a bit of CGT added). Furthermore, while Teesside does have Skillset accreditation for one of its courses (computer animation), it has none for computer games or computer arts. Abertay is the only university with accreditation for both, and holds two out of only five Skillset computer games accreditations in the whole of the UK - and now we're the only Skillset Interactive Media Academy in the UK as well. I'd say that makes us a UK centre of excellence, and I'm certainly not going to apologise for publicising it!
Kevin Coe, Director of Communications, Abertay University
Fair enough Mr. Coe.
I was going on what I had been told, and I certainly wasn't criticising being a centre of Excellence, which I'm aware Abertay is. More how it seemed to be coming across as the ONLY one, at least in my impression.
Must say, 'mainstream courses with a bit of CGT added', is very dismissive. Teeside's courses are every bit specifically tailored to computer games technology, and not just recently. Teeside and Abertay were my final two choices 5 years ago when I was deciding where to go, and it almost came down to the flip of a coin, as the courses for both were extremely well put togther.
In my experience at Teesside, they have only gotten better, and having kept abreast of Abertay's developments, the same can be said of your university.
I'll have to check the Skillset accrediation, as I have been told directly that at least one of the Games courses at Teeside has one too, hence my original comment.
Anyhow, I don't really want to derail the matter further, as the steps Abertay continue to make are great, I just didn't want to see an equally good establishment overshadowed.
I consider them the 'Oxford and Cambridge' of games and Animation in the UK, and it would in fact be great to see them pairing up towards joined goals.
(Specifically building more bridges with the industry as represenative of quality games graduates as a whole, not just a single institution; and supporting the industries requests for tax breaks).
