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‘Graduates from accredited courses three times more likely to get a job’
Michael French Jun 24 2008, 11:10am
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Games Up says a ‘shocking’ 95 per cent of games courses are failing their students and the industry
More criticism of the UK’s games development educators has surfaced today, with the Games Up campaign saying that a lack of accredited games courses is hurting the UK talent pool.
Echoing sentiments expressed in a BBC report last week, the group said that ‘the vast majority of video games degrees at British universities are failing to equip graduates with the necessary skills to build a career in the industry’.
The group adds: “Of the 81 universities in the UK currently offering video gaming-related degrees, only four are accredited by Skillset - the Sector Skills Council for creative media – and no further courses have been added for two years. Skillset is calling for more universities to step up to the challenge and join the scheme to ensure that excellent graduates are properly recognised and supported by industry.”
Games Up also claims that industry research claims graduates from accredited courses are more than three times as likely to get a job in the industry on completion of their course compared to graduates from other games courses
David Braben, chairman of Frontier Developments and spokesperson for the Games Up? campaign, said: “The games development sector is a jewel in the crown of the UK economy made up of a large number of creative and highly-skilled people. However, we are facing a serious decline in the quality of graduates looking to enter the industry. The dearth of maths, physics and computer science graduates is hitting us hard along with other core UK industries. The problem is compounded by the quality of so called specialist games degree courses. 95% of video gaming degrees are simply not fit for purpose. Without some sort of common standard, like Skillset accreditation, these degrees are a waste of time for all concerned."
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Comments
“The Skillset accreditation shibboleth”
Posted by: Saint - Jun 24, 11:43am
This statistic needs examining a little more: a huge amount of Games degree courses being relatively new have not produced a cohort yet- and Skillset cannot accredit them until the first graduates are out the door. By that time it is too late to modify the curriculum easily.
It would make sense for Skillset to get involved at the inception of such courses and offer guidance/signpost problems. From my experience Skillset just aren't interested in getting involved this aspect of 'nurturing'. This, to me, is where the system doesn't work.
“Re: The Skillset accreditation shibboleth”
Posted by: Samo - Jun 24, 11:53am
I believe that funding for such courses are also limited. This results in the students being taught with out of date soft and hardware.
Open your pockets Gordon Brown.
“Re: Re: The Skillset accreditation shibboleth”
Posted by: Grant - Specialmove - Jun 24, 12:29pm
Thing is, many of the Universities don't understand what our industry needs from a graduate. We're seeing a large number of programmer graduates with Unreal engine experience but little understanding of common algorithms, Big O notation or best-practice programming techniques.
"Games Programming" courses should build on the computer science domain, not replace it. Graduates should be confident in their ability to produce code that is sensible, effective and maintainable. They should have an eye for efficiency and an understanding of algorithms common to the game domain - pathfinding, collision detection, graph theory, rendering pipelines, lighting & shaders, and spatial partitioning to name a few.
Producing programming graduates who are more familiar with using a piece of middleware than they are with C++ is severly limiting their options. If Skillset can help Universities focus their attention on the correct topics, then that's an excellent step in the right direction.
“Re: Re: Re: The Skillset accreditation shibboleth”
Posted by: Andy - Jun 24, 7:32pm
Best course I had on my uni degree was Graphical Programming that taught us how to rasterise. Completely obsolete, but taught me everything I needed to know about writing good code from coming up with/researching the algorithm and maths, implimenting it and then optimising it. It also had the benefit of culling a lot of students out of the course.
Will developers be happy with that course, or do they want something that will have the graduate be able to ht the factory floor straight away?