Worry over academic Game Dev degrees: Students misled?

Aussie news entity, The Australian, reports that Queensland academics are “terrified” and somewhat amazed at the rush of enrollments for new degrees in computer games. The academics worry that some students may be misled and may be thinking that they will spend three years finessing their “mad gaming skillz.”
Grad hat - Image 1
The Queensland University of Technology’s IT faculty fears that the misinformation is due to a catchy course title – Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment. Dean of information technology Simon Kaplan explains:

One of our terrible fears is that we’re going to have this cohort of students who imagine that they’re going to be allowed to play games 50 hours a week for three years and then be handed a degree… This is something that terrifies us because computer games at university is no more about playing computer games than aeronautics is about flying fighter jets.

Professor Kaplan worries that once classes begin, student interest might decline. He worries about the possible attrition rate especially given that more than 700 people applied for the 163 places on the QUT degree.

There are signs though that the students do know what they’re getting into. Douglas Cook, who passed up a chance to study law or medicine, had this to say about choice after he won a scholarship for the course:

I could have possibly been a doctor or lawyer (but) I just wanted to do something with my life that I would enjoy for a long time, I’ve always loved playing games and I just thought the next best step was to be making them for a living. I would prefer to create them myself.

However, as optimistic as a lot of students might be, Professor Kaplan does have something to note about the demands of the games industry. “They’re not looking for an average programmer,” he said. “They’re looking for the superstar designers and animators.”

Aussie news entity, The Australian, reports that Queensland academics are “terrified” and somewhat amazed at the rush of enrollments for new degrees in computer games. The academics worry that some students may be misled and may be thinking that they will spend three years finessing their “mad gaming skillz.”
Grad hat - Image 1
The Queensland University of Technology’s IT faculty fears that the misinformation is due to a catchy course title – Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment. Dean of information technology Simon Kaplan explains:

One of our terrible fears is that we’re going to have this cohort of students who imagine that they’re going to be allowed to play games 50 hours a week for three years and then be handed a degree… This is something that terrifies us because computer games at university is no more about playing computer games than aeronautics is about flying fighter jets.

Professor Kaplan worries that once classes begin, student interest might decline. He worries about the possible attrition rate especially given that more than 700 people applied for the 163 places on the QUT degree.

There are signs though that the students do know what they’re getting into. Douglas Cook, who passed up a chance to study law or medicine, had this to say about choice after he won a scholarship for the course:

I could have possibly been a doctor or lawyer (but) I just wanted to do something with my life that I would enjoy for a long time, I’ve always loved playing games and I just thought the next best step was to be making them for a living. I would prefer to create them myself.

However, as optimistic as a lot of students might be, Professor Kaplan does have something to note about the demands of the games industry. “They’re not looking for an average programmer,” he said. “They’re looking for the superstar designers and animators.”

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