For transparency: Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco used to work full-time for British Esports between September 2016 and February 2021, and currently does some freelance work for them, producing their weekly email newsletter.
Professor Bobbie Fletcher, former head of department for games and visual effects at Staffordshire University, has recently been appointed academic director at the new College of Esports.
The College of Esports has been set up to offer university degrees focused on the business of esports from its campus at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, not far from Staffordshire’s London campus.
Professor Fletcher has more than 20 years of experience in games education and helped launch the UK’s first esports degree at Staffordshire University.
Bobbie Fletcher left Staffordshire University a few months ago and spent some time with the University of Northampton (UoN) as a visiting fellow for computer games and esports. She also helped develop the UoN esports academy and founded the Esports Teachers and Lecturers Network (ETALNET), which held a conference on February 22nd 2022.
She is also a member of the Esports Research Network of international researchers, and was recently shortlisted in the 2022 MCV/Develop Women in Games Awards in the Educational Impact category. This accolade went to Shahneila Saeed of Digital Schoolhouse/Ukie, while Morgan Ashurst won the Esports Impact Award.
College of Esports has a partnership with the British Esports Association, which has helped produce part of the degree and provided College of Esports with some guidance, but says it won’t be teaching the courses.
College of Esports founders, Professor Philip Wilson and David Thomson, have experience in higher education and the sports industry – it’s their first endeavour in esports.
The first College of Esports students will start their courses later this year, from September/October 2022.
Esports education has been ramping up in recent years, particularly in the UK, with the Pearson Esports BTEC and multiple esports degrees launching, and other organisations like LDN UTD and Guild Esports focusing on the space.
Barnsley College’s esports coaching, health and wellbeing degree is the latest esports degree course in the UK, joining the likes of Staffordshire University, the University of Chichester, Confetti Institute/Nottingham Trent University, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Roehampton (which has a UK esports scholarship), Birmingham City University and more.
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.
