Abertay hits back at Games Up

The University of Abertay in Scotland has struck back at claims by UK game studio lobbying group Games Up that games development degrees are failing the industry.

Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, head of the school for computing at the university which runs highly-regarded games courses and the Dare to be Digital competition, said he rejects the claims and that ‘collaboration, not castigation, is name of the game’.

The Games Up campaign today claimed that a ‘shocking 95 per cent’ of UK games development degrees were not creating capable graduates talented enough to enter the games industry.

Said MacKinnon: “The argument that British universities are failing to equip graduates with the rights skills for industry cannot be applied across the board because there are universities that are getting it right.

“What we need is better collaboration between industry and universities.

“The model that exists at Abertay University is one of very strong industry involvement, focussed on producing graduates that can work and have the requisite skills to do so, but are still broadly educated to university graduate level.

“The need is not to generally castigate universities for failing to meet industry needs, but for industries to work with the universities to identify appropriate graduate outcomes that reflect these industry needs.

“The danger if we don’t follow this route is that industry demands that we train personnel to ‘fit the mould’ rather than educating graduates who can perform in a range of roles.

“The evidence of success of working together with industry is the Skillset accreditation and the proof of the pudding is that Abertay has two of the four accreditations in the UK."