Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen signs cooperation agreement with Georgia State University in the US around game development degree

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  1. **The Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (Howest), with its highly regarded gaming programme, is to work closely with the American university Georgia State. The aim is both to attract talent to Belgium and to offer Belgian students opportunities in the tech hub Atlanta.**

    A signature and an Omer. This was the final word on Monday afternoon on the deal that the West Flemish university college Howest concluded with the American university Georgia State. The programmes specialised in gaming of the two institutions will work closely together over the next five years on matters such as curriculum, research and exchanges of both students and staff.

    The deal was struck on the sidelines of the economic trade mission led by Princess Astrid that has been travelling through the US since Sunday. There, for the first time, the growing Belgian gaming industry had a chance to show itself under the wings of an economic mission. A sign that our sector is maturing,’ says David Verbruggen, CEO of the sector federation Belgian Games.

    **Fiscal support**

    The choice for Atlanta is not coincidental. The state of Georgia has in recent years become a hotbed of activity in the sector. In 2005 we had less than ten game studios here’, remembers Andrew Greenberg, the director of the Georgia Game Developers Association. The industry employs more than 4,000 people here, and has an economic impact of 800 million dollars.

    The Belgian sector was only too happy to show off with an extensive event in the buildings of Georgia State. Among other things, a digital avatar was made of Princess Astrid, students competed in the Belgian VR game ‘HyperDash’ by Ghent game studio Triangle Factory, and Belgian companies such as Meta, which specialises in e-sports, Antwerp developer Cybernetic Walrus and Brussels-based DeMute presented themselves. The latter, which specialises in sound for video games, already works closely in Atlanta with the gaming giant Hi-Rez, maker of the very popular game ‘Smite’.

    **Best education in the world**

    But it is not only entrepreneurs who are attracted by the activity in Georgia. With a structural cooperation with Georgia State, Howest also hopes to reap the benefits of the dynamics in the southern state.

    The digital arts & entertainment programme at Howest in Kortrijk has already been voted the best gaming programme in the world three times. An ecosystem has grown up around it in recent years,’ says Frederik D’hulster, director of education and internationalisation at the university college. We also found this here in Atlanta, at the Creative Media Industries Institute. We are doing more or less the same, each with our own emphasis.

    The intention of the collaboration is to connect these two ecosystems, to benefit both, says D’hulster. That can be done in many ways. For example, we are going to harmonise our curricula more, so that exchanges of students and teachers become easier. But we are also going to cooperate in the field of research, want to learn from each other how we can best support start-ups, or help each other establish links with local companies to provide students with good work placements.

    Something is really brewing here,’ says D’hulster. You notice that many tech companies are leaving Silicon Valley to settle further south, because it is still affordable here. That’s a dynamic we want to capitalize on.’

    Georgia State’s gaming education program is also growing like a rocket. This year, 900 students are enrolled, more than triple the number of students enrolled five years ago when the program was first offered. At Howest, about 700 students start a gaming course each year.

    Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

  3. Association with American education isn’t what it was. It’s becoming a dystopian shithole if you’re not wealthy as fuck.
    Says enough that these corporations move to the South because more exploiting to be done there. Local governments also plough in tax money to draw these companies. The American Grift.

  4. Except that gaming industry is becoming the new gambling industry.
    These are the new bingo’s, slots and lunaparken of the nineties. With very little regulation, even less. And more accessible for kids.

    Sure there are plenty of small indie devs who rise on the rising tide. But they’re not the ones who make the industry so wildly profitable.

  5. I went to an info day for Howest recently, and you can literally pick the aspiring DAE students out of the crowd. And I don’t mean that in a positive way. So many neckbeards…

    To be fair, the ones you can pick out of the crowd are usually the ones who drop out pretty quick.

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