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Gaps in university computing courses has meant that British graduates are losing out to foreign talent in the gaming industry, according to government advisors.

The UK gaming industry is currently going from strength to strength, developing some of the world’s most famous video games, including Grand Theft Auto IV, Broken Sword, and Runescape, which was created by Jagex, a studio co-founded by a Cambridge graduate. As such, the shortage of British games designers raises questions about the way in which university computing courses are preparing its students for the requirements of the job market.

A report by the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee found “deficiencies” in many courses which meant that students were not being taught the skills needed in order to pursue a career in the lucrative world of games designing. The report suggests that the UK industry is relying on migrants from outside Europe to fill empty jobs, while the most gifted designers are taking posts in the USA and Canada.

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that the global market for video games will reach an alltime high of $86.8 billion in 2014, suggesting that the lack of British computing graduates entering the industry is a serious issue.

The University of Cambridge does not directly address this gap in the market, although the computer science course does include certain papers that are relevant for games design, including Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics & Image Processing. Professor Ann Copestake, deputy head of the department, said: “We aim to teach our undergraduates core principles of computer science which they can apply in many different areas. The needs of the different industries change very rapidly, and, of course, new industries keep emerging, but people who really understand the fundamentals don't have a problem with this.”

James McAulay, a second-year computer scientist at Fitzwilliam College, explained that particular activities run by the department help students develop an interest in gaming: “The Computer Laboratory did recently host a fairly popular codeathon, where students competed in teams to build a game in under 30 hours, so whilst games development isn't offered explicitly as part of the course, the department certainly aren't against it.”

Jan Samols, who is responsible for Computer Laboratory outreach activities, added: “A number of our graduates have gone into the games industry. Indeed, Jagex – the UK's largest independent developer and publisher of online games – is co-founded by a [CL] grad Andrew Gower.”

“A number of games developers are members of the [CL] Supporters Club – Frontier, NinjaTheory, Lionhead and 22cans – the latter co-founded by an icon of the games industry Peter Molyneux. When Peter came to the Lab last year, the talk was packed to the gunnels. Given that these companies engage with the Lab and regularly attend the recruitment fair, it would seem that our students are viewed as more than capable of entering the games industry.”

Still, it appears that games design is not one of the most popular fields of work for new computer science graduates. McAulay said that while it is difficult to pin down popular destinations due to the diverse nature of jobs available to computer science graduates, although it seemed that “the majority of us go into software engineering roles, with a large number also going into the City to work for investment banks and trading companies. There's a great start-up culture in Cambridge, and the CL has a history of spawning new and exciting companies, so there's a chance that some of us will do that.”

It appears then that while Cambridge offers certain courses which can be useful to the hopeful games designer, it remains to be seen whether this is enough to give British graduates the skills needed to make it in such a technically demanding industry. Anglia Ruskin University offering a dedicated MA course in interactive games design just next door, such specialised preparation at Cambridge appears to be lacking despite a number of success stories.