I can't chose between these 2 options for my Game Art degree

I was also very impressed by Teesside's emphasis on employability support. They said you can use their careers service for two years after you graduate. But maybe that is worrying in itself!

I thought the campus was more coherent at Teesside.

Staffs is better for transport links to the rest of the country (more central).

Train London to Stoke = 1.5 hours direct. London to Middlesbrough = 3 hours with one change.

TBH didn't actually look round the Stoke accommodation but was told about the pizza ovens. Central Halls at Teesside was nice enough with second year students acting as wardens ("you'll be grateful when I'm holding your hair out the way when you're being sick 'cos you've drunk too much"

A 3 hour train journey? Is that one of the really fast long distance ones? Google maps indicates it will be a good 4 1/2 hours via car and 6 hours via train.

I'm a current 3rd Year at Staffordshire University, and while I'm not on the gaming courses, I know people who do them and are really happy with the course. I have actually been round the new facilities that they have renovated for the Games and Computing courses, on a tour along with investors into the university, and they were very impressed by what was on offer. Like you pointed out, there are a lot of links to gaming companies with the university, and from what I can tell a lot of students end up working for both indie and big name gaming publishers.

I think the reason why there were big differences in male to female ratio was because the university used to be split across two campuses, one in Stafford and one in Stoke. The Stafford campus were mostly male, due to the types of courses on offer their, but they essentially moved over to Stoke and brought all of the equipment over. Now it should be more balanced if that is something you are worrying about.

Obviously it is your choice where you head, but I thought I would just let you know a little bit more from someone already here at Staffs

Thanks a lot for your help!
I'm glad to hear they merged the campuses. the only thing i liked about my old university was that everything was on one campus. Also if it was mainly guys in the one i was at... that would be quite tragic.
The only thing so far that has made me question staffordshire Game Art is one of the links i mentioned showed that 16% of people dropped out. That is a large amount. I'm not sure how accurate that is but it's quite a telling statistic. I'm going to visit both campuses on the open day (hoping there is one before April because I will want to book accommodation early).

No worries! Here is a link to the website where you can book an Open Day. Next one is on the 25th March, which is hopefully good for you. Let me know if there is anything else you need to know and I'll see if I can help!

Teesside university
http://www.tees.ac.uk/undergraduate_courses/Computer_Games/BA_(Hons)_Computer_Games_Art.cfm
Staffordshire university
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/course/SSTK-11152.jsp

I'm going to do a foundation and then a 3 year course in Game Art. I'm mainly interested in the 3D modelling side of it which seems to be the focus for both courses.

The Game Art course at Teeside has a creative skill set tick. I did hear from a careers adviser that the tick is recognized. But I'm not sure in terms of future employment whether they would care too much. They are both around 100 in the university rankings... but I know for Teeside their computing design courses are meant to be highly rated.

I have checked out unistats but I don't know how reliable that is considering for all of the percentages they seemed to indicate there wasn't enough people to respond to it. but they both had high ratings compared to other game art courses.

Which university provided interesting statistics. But again I don't know how reliable they are. For instance at teeside the students seemed to really like the course... but the average graduate salary is 16k compared to staffordshire 21k. I don't know whether certain groups of students were influenced into answer it resulting to unreliable results?

What uni stats (teeside quite highly rated overall)
https://www.whatuni.com/university-course-reviews/teesside-university/5626/
https://www.whatuni.com/university-profile/staffordshire-university/3697/

I know this is something i should chose. But this is a very important choice so any kind of advice from anyone who is good at this sort of thing would be great. I'm personally leaning towards teeside due to it having the tick... but then staffordshire has links with gaming companies etc... I just don't know.

EDIT: Quite signiifcant. Looking more at the whichuni pages. Staffordshire has a dropout rate of 16%... teeside has 8% (for game art). Also teeside seems to have a 50/50 split of male and female... where as staffordshire is 93% male. I would rather be with male and female. BUT 60% get a 2:1 or above at teeside... 70% 2:1 or above at staffordshire.

Hi, I am currently a student at Staffordshire university so I thought I would give you a little info from a current student perspective. Of course it absolutely should be whatever feels right for you but hear me out. Have you been to an open day at them both? That is the best way to work out which one is for you. I did two open days at staffs uni and the second time I arrived for the open day it felt like I had come home. It is the most welcoming campus I had been to and I have been to 8 different university open days. Regarding the statistics, yes they have their place but I don't feel like they all do staffs justice. I am on a completely different course to you so I cannot talk specifically about your course but I know in my own course, the people who dropout tend to be those who just are not suited for university, some want the life and not work and some just find it isnt what they wanted to do after all. That will happen whichever university you go to. Certainly on my course and I have heard it from people on other courses, if you are prepared to put the work in, to can get there and the tutors will help you and the university will provide the support you need. In terms of links with the industry, of all the universities I looked at, staffs seems to have the most links with outside companies (that is just my observations and nothing official) and many of the tutors and professionals in their field so have many contacts. Anyway I hope this helped a little and I wish you the very best of luck with whatever you choose to do.

Thanks a lot for your input!
Yeah your right I really should check out the campuses of both before coming to a conclusion. Working in a nicer environment can help with studies quite a bit. Especially if it's something creative. And that is an interesting point about links with companies. Have you seen the game art facilities any chance?

Yeah, I do find it a lovely campus to work within. I have seen some of the gaming facilities. The university has recently invested a huge amount of money in a new development which has a huge number of computers and other devices for gaming and related courses. I'm afraid I don't know anymore detail than that as I'm not hugely literate on gaming. But I did get invited to the opening of the facilities and it was very impressive. I am sure that an open day will include a tour around the facilities you would be using or you can always email the university asking for details on what they have to offer you, I am sure they would be only too pleased to explain.

Thanks a lot!
Just wondering. What is the halls like? Now everyone has moved to the stoke campus is it fairly mixed amongst them? I'm going to assume the halls are only for first years, is that correct?
Staff sounds really good... looking at some of the pictures from teeside (in their defence i think they were old pictures) it looks quite outdated. A nice new modern working space/area would be great.

I was also very impressed by Teesside's emphasis on employability support. They said you can use their careers service for two years after you graduate. But maybe that is worrying in itself!

I thought the campus was more coherent at Teesside.

Staffs is better for transport links to the rest of the country (more central).

I lived in halls last year which was before Stafford moved to stoke but the allocation isn't based on course. I went for Clarice cliff halls which is the en-suite accommodation because I very much wanted my own bathroom. Flats there can be single or mixed gender, and if it is still the same as when I was there you get to put your preferred option on the application form. There other on-campus accommodation is leek road halls which have 12-13 to a flat and that is single sex, and leek road houses which have 4-6 people and I believe they are mixed too. The leek road houses and halls are not en-suite.
Personally I liked living in Clarice cliff and on campus, it makes first year so much easier when you are so close to lectures and also you get to know lots of people quickly. Clarice cliff has 5-6 people per flat and the flat has a shared kitchen.
And yes you are right, except in exceptional circumstances, on campus accommodation is for first years only.

Hi artjen,
I was just wondering if you visited staffordshire when it had 2 separate campuses? It seems they have merged them onto the stoke one.

Thanks a lot for your help. Just wondering in terms of accommodation which area/block has the biggest/nicest rooms? Being near to lectures is very handy but for me at Roehampton ,the room i had there was very small. I would rather walk an extra 5 minutes or so if the rooms/lounge is larger.