EA: Games degrees 'failing students'

Games publisher Electronic Arts has voiced concerns over the confusing number of gaming-related courses now on offer in the UK, with many of them 'too specific'.

EA's head of Global Talent Brand Matthew Jeffery told GameIndustry: "I think the problem at the moment is that there are just a large number of gaming-related courses, particularly in the UK - at last count there were around 170 or 180 different courses - which means there's a huge supply of potential graduates coming into the industry."

Jeffery also expressed his concerns for students whose degree is too specific, adding: "If a games course student cannot get a job in the games industry, where do they get a job? It's not the most transferable of degrees, compared to more traditional courses."

The EA chief believes that many of the courses now on offer are failing students as they do not offer the correct skill set: "If you look at the gaming degrees, a lot of them have been put together quite hastily and don't prepare graduates for a career in the industry. That means they come to a company like ours and they need extra training - they're not quite ready.

"So the problem is that game degrees are almost like the latest fashion accessory - all the universities are running to set them up, but the students aren't being prepared in terms of the skill sets they have."

Jeffery went on to add that EA prefers students to have traditional degrees rather than those that are games-related: "Our recommendation at EA is that we prefer people to have traditional degrees, so somebody studying computer science, maths or physics and then coming into a programming role, means that they can then go off into a number of different industries and be successful.

"People all want to get into our industry, which is a phenomenal thing, but for graduates we just want to make sure that the message is out there - choose carefully, look at the course you're studying, see where the students have gone on to after that, etc."