The University of Chichester, which launched a BA (Hons) Esports degree course last year, has plans to expand.
There are currently 20 students on the course and now the university has plans to bring in an additional 35 first-year students in September this year, as the current 20 become second-year students.
Along with this, the university will also be adding new rooms to the Tech Park building at the Bognor Regis campus where the esports course is based, and it will also launch a games design course in September.
Last year, the University of Chichester hired former pro gamer Rams ‘r2k’ Singh as senior lecturer in esports and FIFA commentator Brandon Smith as associate lecturer.
“It’s been a whirlwind of activity down here at the new Tech Park at the University of Chichester,” Rams Singh, senior lecturer in esports at the University of Chichester, told Esports News UK.
“This coming September we’re looking at 35 [new students joining] as we’ve an had an incredible amount of applications. We’re going to expand to a few more rooms in the Tech Park and it’s going to be pretty exciting with the fact that we are launching Games Design this September to go along with this.”
Rams Singh, University of Chichester
“This first year we’ve had 20 students and they’ve enjoyed what Brandon and myself have been doing for them in this course. We’ve been to events like EGX and CDL London, we’ve brought in a few top guest speakers for the students who they would only see on streams and social media – and that is just the beginning.
“This coming September we’re looking at 35 [students coming in] as we’ve an had an incredible amount of applications. Again we’re trying to keep the quality of the classes that we put on with our 20 students currently, so any higher amount of students than 35 and the quality goes. We’re going to expand to a few more rooms in the Tech Park for this and its going to be pretty exciting with the fact that we are launching Games Design this September to go along with this.”
Rams said his aim is to foster the esports workforce of the future.
“My aim really is to give the esports industry their future workers of the scene and get them doing things right so we can have the next coaches, managers, marketers, production people etc, and also for me personally to get this teaching right, so that people who are currently in the industry will have a path to look forward to if they think about moving on.”
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.
