One of the UK’s most experienced former pro players has landed a role at the University of Chichester.
Ramesh ‘r2k’ Singh has joined the university’s creative and digital technologies department as a senior lecturer in esports.
The development is a first for the UK education space. While several universities and colleges have started running courses in esports over the past few years, Chichester is the first to have hired a former pro gamer as a lecturer.
Starting in August I will be taking up the post as Senior Lecturer in Esports at the @chiuni. It won’t just be about playing games, but the psychology, physicality, culture, industry and many more.
I will be (argurably) the first former professional to take up a role in teaching pic.twitter.com/WpVqHw3qWJ
— Rams Singh (@justR2K) July 15, 2019
well former pro gamer anyway 🙂
I look forward to the challenge and to bring in support from and to the scene to help unlock the potential of the UK— Rams Singh (@justR2K) July 15, 2019
The course is a three-year BA (Hons) degree covering competitive play, sports science, psychology, event production and business, covering trends, commercial sponsorship as well as strategic and tactical thinking.
It will be based at the new engineering and digital technology park on the Bognor Regis campus, including a 300sqm film studio/sound stage, 80sqm green screen studio for motion capture and chroma work, a post production area and more.
“I look forward to the challenge and to bring in support from and to the scene, to help unlock the potential of the UK.”
r2k
Rams has an impressive track record. After going competitive with Quake 3 Arena around Christmas 1999, he went on to win several Savage Lans, Insomnias, ESWC and other tournaments. The former Dignitas player was also UK national captain in 2013 for the World Cyber Games and ESWC 2007.
Rams has competed in a variety of games, from Trackmania to Project Gotham Racing 3, Battlefield, Virtua Fighter and Quake to name a few. You can see a full list of his achievements on r2k’s Twitch channel.
More recently, he has worked as a commentator, host and interviewer, having worked for Ginx TV and more. He also won the Battle of the Brands with Scan Computers in 2018 and 2019.
‘Other unis should take note of this appointment’
Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco shares his views
This is an important development in UK esports.
We’ve seen some universities make a land grab into the exciting world of esports over the past few years. But for some it has been just that, without substance or the knowledge that you’d expect from a university charging students thousands of pounds.
So it’s great to see the University of Chichester offering this course backed with some real, rare experience by bringing r2k on board. He will have a lot to pass on to the next generation of esports hopefuls in the UK and I wish him all the best in his new role.
I hope other universities take note of this appointment and try to bring in similarly experienced lecturers for their courses. I’m not saying it’s easy – esports is still largely in its infancy and a lot of top esports talent is working at events, tournaments and more and some might not want to work as full-time lecturers right now.
As the industry matures and these professionals look to the next generation, we may see more of them joining universities and colleges. Until then, let’s keep on holding the course makers to account and help encourage them to do things correctly, like Chichester is.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
