Seven Staffordshire University Courses gain TIGA Accreditation

By July 13, 2015 Press Releases

TIGA, the network for game developers and digital publishers, and trade association representing the UK videogames industry, has announced that Staffordshire University is the latest university to gain TIGA Accreditation, for seven of its games courses:

 

·       BSc (Hons) Computer Games Design

·       BEng (Hons) Computer Games Design

·       MEng Computer Games Design

·       BSc (Hons) Computer Gameplay Design and Production

·       BEng (Hons) Computer Gameplay Design and Production

·       MEng Computer Gameplay Design and Production    

·       BSc (Hons) Computer Games Design and Programming

A thorough review was carried out both on and off site by members of TIGA’s Accreditation Committee, which included Dr Richard Wilson – CEO, TIGA, Chris Kingsley – Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Rebellion Developments Ltd & TIGA Director of Education and Professional Development, Dr Mike Reddy – University of South Wales and TIGA Educational Advisor and Dr Mark Eyles – University of Portsmouth and TIGA Educational Advisor.

The Accreditation Committee found that across all the courses, Staffordshire University students develop industry relevant skills that focus on careers in the games industry, with relevant technical or artistic skills to enable them to seek work in a range of professional roles.

In the second and final year modules, students work together in multidisciplinary, cross-year teams to create games. These projects are closely modelled on industry practices and are invaluable to students in their development of industry relevant sets of skills.

Through the university’s close ties with Epic Games, Staffordshire’s Games Design/Technology Group has been able to not only promote their students at GDC 2014, but also secured funding and support to create the exemplary Epic Games Centre. This centre not only provides valuable facilities for students but also enables close, continuing engagement with Epic Games.

The courses all have excellent enrichment activities to support student learning and industry awareness. Activities include:

  • Flix Interactive Development Day where students were able to work with a game developer;
  • the annual Global Game Jam; with the largest European centre at Staffordshire.
  • Indie Game Conference;
  • GradEx end of year graduate show, for showcasing work to industry; and
  • Summer Bootcamp to support students and graduates setting up companies.

The resources available to students include not only current game engine technologies, but also a motion capture facility.

 There is an expectation that students will end up in a wide variety of roles within the games industry. This is borne out by the destination list provided on the games Honour Roll page on the university’s website which we encourage potential students and employers to review, here: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/schools/art_and_design/gamesdesign/honour-roll/

Following the accreditation process, TIGA also provides a number of key recommendations regarding how accredited universities and colleges can improve the quality of the course even further. Dr Bobbie Fletcher, Head of The Games Technology Group at Staffordshire University, said: “We are delighted and honoured to have our Games Awards accredited by TIGA. It was a very thorough process to insure that our courses truly met the needs of industry and I’m glad to be able to say with the backing of TIGA that Staffordshire University successfully prepares Graduates for employment in the highly competitive world of the Games Industry” Dr Richard Wilson, CEO, TIGA, comments: “Congratulations to Staffordshire University for becoming the latest of our educational members to gain TIGA Accreditation. Games developers compete to a critical extent on the quality of their teams. TIGA has introduced the TIGA Accreditation process to ensure that universities and colleges can produce graduates with industry relevant skills. The TIGA Accreditation system accredits the best undergraduate and postgraduate university courses enabling both prospective students and game developers to identify those courses that are producing industry ready graduates.” Dr Mark Eyles, University of Portsmouth, added: “The accreditation team was impressed by the quality of the games provision at Staffordshire University. The dedication of the staff and the support the university gives to the Games Design/Technology Group combined with the focus on delivering industry relevant material make this an exemplary location for students to gain game development skills.

“Interactions with industry have clearly informed the course content and the constant striving to improve the courses has resulted in a strong suite of games courses. The move to a new location will undoubtedly be challenging, but promises to have significant benefits in bringing other game industry relevant courses closer together on the same campus.

“The newer games courses, such as the Games Art course, will ensure that Staffordshire University has a provision to meet a range of game development specialities.”

-ends-

Notes to editors: Key features of the TIGA Accreditation process:

 

  • All TIGA Accredited courses teach skills required by the games industry. These skills are also becoming increasingly in demand in other related industries such as the synthetic training industry.
  • Courses are examined by a panel of industry and academic experts to ensure that students are developing games industry skills as well as transferable skills (communication, team working, problem solving and so on) important to the games industry and at an appropriate level.
  • As an important part of the accreditation process courses provide details of the percentage of their graduates finding work in the games industry and also in related industries.
  • Each course is judged on its own merits and must demonstrate that it works closely with the games industry to stay up to date and relevant. By judging courses in this way TIGA Accreditation is suitable for a wide range of games courses, including those with a programming, art, design or business/entrepreneurial focus.
  • Universities are also required to show that they have the resources (hardware, software, staff, labs and so on), curriculum, syllabi, quality systems and student support to deliver their courses.
  • One of the key strengths of TIGA accreditation is that it is not confined to only ‘technical’ or ‘art’ courses, but also covers other game development skills (such as game design, mobile game development, indie development entrepreneurship).
  • Additionally it is able to keep up to date with the latest developments in game technologies and does not have prescribed lists of skills, which can become limiting in the extremely fast moving games industry. For a course to be accredited the university must have identified specific game developer skill needs and developed their course to meet these.
  • Accreditation lasts for 5 years at which time courses are re-examined to ensure they are maintaining their standards. If successful they are re-accredited. Courses must also submit a yearly report to the TIGA Accreditation Committee.
  • Accreditation is open to all TIGA education members. TIGA Accredited courses are supported through TIGA’s educational initiatives and have assistance in remaining abreast of current industry practices. TIGA Accreditation is focused on campus based university and college courses.

The TIGA Accreditation process has been in development since January 2010, with a number of models being explored before settling on the simple, robust and rigorous process of requiring courses to demonstrate that they are producing students who have developed skills that are in demand by game developers, while allowing courses the freedom to address a wide range of industry needs. A first set of seven courses, from the University of Portsmouth, Sheffield Hallam University, Bournemouth University and the University of the West of Engand (UWE) have already been accredited. In addition to Staffordshire University’s courses, there are more of our member Universities beginning the TIGA Accreditation process. For more information on TIGA Accreditation, please contact: Dr Mark Eyles, University of Portsmouth: mark.eyles@port.ac.uk. About TIGA TIGA is 90% funded by independent UK businesses. 80% of our board members are developers and/or from UK owned businesses, and 50% of our board are UK business owners themselves. Since 2010, TIGA has won 17 business awards. TIGA focuses on three sets of activities:

  • Political representation
  • Media representation
  • Business services

This enhances the competitiveness of our members by providing benefits that make a material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and improved commercial opportunities. It also means our members’ voices are heard in the corridors of power and positively represented in national, broadcast and UK video game trade media. Get in touch:

 

 

Cookies

We use cookies on our site to track activity and visitor numbers - please help us by allowing us to use them on your visit.