Initiative helps students easy for top computer games institute

The IELTS test of English ability is no longer a must for Chinese students vying for top computer game institutes abroad thanks to new arrangements agreed with the Scottish regional government, according to a press briefing on Thursday in Beijing.

The rigid requirement for IELTS scores used to frighten many Chinese talented students away from prestigious universities abroad, said Wang Yuyun, president of Perfect World Education Investment Co. Ltd.

“Now, however, with an orientation program in China, which offers both English and computer games training courses, students can prepare for one of the world’s top postgraduate courses at Abertay University [Dundee], which, to some extent, bypasses the IELTS test requirement.”

Pixseed Institute of Digital Art, a state-of-the-art new learning space, is the brainchild of a cooperation agreement between Abertay University, the first one in the world to offer computer games degrees, and Perfect World, China’s online gaming giant. It was signed last December during the China-UK Creative Innovators Forum.

The five-month Master of Professional Practice in Games Development Orientation Programme (MPPOP) in Pixseed would provide Chinese students with the ideal preparation for entering Abertay, said Prof. Nigel Seaton, the university’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor.

“Pixseed is a fantastic resource and acts as a tangible marker of the growing collaboration between Abertay University and Perfect World, as well as reflecting the strength of collaboration between the United Kingdom and China in higher education,” he added.

The progress in internet and digital technologies in recent years has prompted the development of China’s digital cultural industry and created new business patterns, with industries like comics & animation-based games, digital movies, internet literature, internet music and online videos.

China’s game market has become the world’s largest, rising from some 10 billion yuan in 2007 to 160 billion yuan in 2016, a nearly 15-fold jump in a decade.

Figures from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television also showed that China’s movie box office grossed 45.712 billion yuan in 2016, a 1,300 percent growth from 3.327 billion yuan in 2007.

The fast growth in the country’s digital cultural industry has caused huge demand for highly-qualified professionals. Surveys show China’s digital content production sector requires at least another 300,000 professionals by 2018.

Established on April 28, Pixseed is a talent incubator that focuses on digital art fields such as games, comics and animation, TV and movies to cultivate talents in design, research and development and management.