University of Abertay awarded £3m grant

The Scottish Parliament has awarded the University of Abertay a GBP 3 million grant to expand and improve its operations dedicated to videogames education.

The Dundee-based university plans to use the money on two new industry designed postgraduate courses, as well as new buildings to accommodate them.

"The global, interactive, creative media sector has a potential market value to Scotland of up to GBP 68 billion by 2012," Abertay's principal and vice-chancellor professor Bernard King.

"If in Scotland we are to be successful in reaping that economic growth potential, then we need to be continually producing new interactive products and upgrading our workforce's skills."

"This significant capacity-building investment by the Scottish Government establishes Abertay as Scotland's University Centre of Excellence in Computer Games Education. It recognises that Scotland can be a global leader in this sector, and that Abertay can drive that ambition by providing graduates with the necessary world-class skills to succeed."

Abertay's new postgraduate programmes will focus on real-world prototyping with graduates working in teams mentored by academic and industry professionals.

King continued: "At Abertay, we are both confident and ambitious about the part Scotland can play in this fast-changing, global marketplace."

"We believe that there is a great deal more we can do to build upon Scotland's illustrious heritage in communication technologies and the creative industries, and that we can continue to contribute both knowledge and innovation, in order to support Scotland's creative industries in taking the very centre of this valuable, world stage."