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Concept games art

ItsRhyx

What are the best uni courses in england london for concept comic and games art design? How does Herts and ual compare?

Reply 1

aspalax

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by ItsRhyx

What are the best uni courses in england london for concept comic and games art design? How does Herts and ual compare?

Hi there. UAL is a great arts university, but their games courses are relatively new (started <5 years ago) and they don't have a lot of examples of student work yet to show. They are likely to improve in the next few years but I think there are currently better picks for games education.

Herts is a great pick, particularly if you also have interest in animation. Their animation courses are some of the best.

Others to look at-
Any TIGA accredited courses (be wary that some universities have some of their games courses accredited but not others... one course accredited doesn't necessarily indicate quality in their others) : https://tiga.org/education/tiga-university-accreditation

Look on Linkedin for UK-based studios you admire. (some starting points might be ... Playground games (Forza Horizon), Sumo Digital (Warframe, Team Sonic Racing, among many others), Rebellion (Sniper Elite)) Then tab to People > Where they studied to look at universities people are attending and then getting jobs in games.

Other specific universities I think are good picks:

London area - Escape Studios (A smaller university, with some history of financial issues, but great industry links and career outcomes. Lots of great examples of student work. Less traditional "university experience" - probably the best pick if you really want to study games specifically in London, though)

Further away, but worth looking at because the courses are particularly good -
Staffordshire (Concept art or Game Art) - Generally doing exceptional currently in all their games courses, my #1 pick for games education right now. They aren't super centrally located if that is something that is important to you. The quality of their education and career outcomes is probably the best you can get at a UK university for games currently.

Teesside (specifically if you're dead-set on Concept Art) - Teesside has one of the longest-running concept art courses in the country, so tons and tons of resources and teaching staff with a lot of experience. Fairly poorly located.

Abertay (Computer Arts - good, but very far away as it's in Scotland), DMU (Game Art - which is where I went), Portsmouth (Game Art - doing a lot recently to try and raise their profile... have definitely noticeably improved their courses within recent years), Bournemouth (Games Design - very long standing, well known in industry & respected games course, but more generalist.)

Reply 2

StaffsRep Vera

Official Rep

Original post

by ItsRhyx

What are the best uni courses in england london for concept comic and games art design? How does Herts and ual compare?

Heyy! Piggybacking off @aspalax which thank you for the mention! Obviously, a bit biased but I can most certainly recommend University of Staffordshire especially as a first year learning everything currently as it goes!

University of Staffordshire is a multi-award winning and TIGA accredited course – winning best educational institute for 2025 and consecutively the year before at the TIGA Game Industry Awards! Alongside this we are ranked 1^st in the UK and 14^th in The Rookies Global School Rankings 2025 for our Games institute (which is pretty impressive if I do say so myself). It’s most certainly one of the reasons why I personally chose University of Staffordshire when applying to Universities for Game Art alongside the University having a high rate of successful students receiving job placements!

We have three campuses, one in London and the other in Stoke-on-Trent (which would specify more so towards you!) and lastly Stafford. At London we have: Computer Games Art, Computer Games Design, Computer Games Design and Programming and Computer Games design with Animation. In the meantime, Stoke has all the above courses alongside Concept Art for Games and Film which based off your comment you may like alongside a specific course for Cartoon and Comic Arts – this last course isn’t specifically games but it’s worth a mention if you’re considering going down a comic-book industry pathway. Have a look and see what you think!!

If you have any questions, please let me know! :smile:

- Vera, Games Art First Year and Student Content Creator 🤍

(edited 4 days ago)

Reply 3

aspalax

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by StaffsRep Vera

Heyy! Piggybacking off @aspalax which thank you for the mention! Obviously, a bit biased but I can most certainly recommend Staffordshire University especially as a first year learning everything currently as it goes!

Staffordshire University is a multi-award winning and TIGA accredited course – winning best educational institute for 2025 and consecutively the year before at the TIGA Game Industry Awards! Alongside this we are ranked 1^st in the UK and 14^th in The Rookies Global School Rankings 2025 for our Games institute (which is pretty impressive if I do say so myself). It’s most certainly one of the reasons why I personally chose Staffordshire University when applying to Universities for Game Art alongside the University having a high rate of successful students receiving job placements!

We have two campuses, one in London and the other in Stoke-on-Trent. At London we have: Computer Games Art, Computer Games Design, Computer Games Design and Programming and Computer Games design with Animation. In the meantime, Stoke has all the above courses alongside Concept Art for Games and Film which based off your comment you may like alongside a specific course for Cartoon and Comic Arts – this last course isn’t specifically games but it’s worth a mention if you’re considering going down a comic-book industry pathway. Have a look and see what you think!!

If you have any questions, please let me know! :smile:

- Vera, Games Art First Year and Student Content Creator 🤍

Interesting, I wasn't aware of the London campus. Is it new(er)? How do you filter for courses that are available on the London campus? The ones you linked are showing "Location: Stoke on Trent Campus" so is there any way of seeing which are also available on the London campus? Presumably they don't share teaching staff?

Reply 4

Uni of Staffs

Official Rep

Hi @aspalax,

Yes, we have an amazing campus in Stratford, East London (it opened in 2019) which has its own team of talented staff there (that’s including teaching, support and wider student experience).

You can find out all about it here and all the courses we offer on our London course pages (they’re also listed on our main web pages too).

Our brilliant @Staffs Rep Saira is a final year Computer Science student there if anyone wants to chat all things London 😁

Reply 5

aspalax

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by Uni of Staffs

Hey that's awesome, I will definitely keep in mind.
I recommend Staffs a lot since I've worked a fair bit with Staffs students and grads, so it's nice to be able to give better reccomendations.

Reply 6

Kingston Grace

Official Rep

Original post

by ItsRhyx

What are the best uni courses in england london for concept comic and games art design? How does Herts and ual compare?

Hi @ItsRhyx

I thought I would just mention these courses at Kington Game Development BCs and Illustration Animation BA

Although, I don't personally study these courses here at Kingston I am part of Kingston School of Art and find it a really creative place to be.

Kingston is also No.2 in London for Animation and Game Design.

I can share a few posts that might help give you an idea as to what it is like.
My Deciding Factors for Choosing Kingston University
The Pros of Kingston
How Kingston Prepares you for Industry
Kingston University Review

I would really recommend going to open days for the universities you are interested in as this really helped me make a decision. It is a great chance to get a feel for the university as to what it might be like to live and study there, see the facilities and speak to current students and lectures.

I hope this helps and good luck making a decision! If you have any questions feel free to ask :smile:

-Grace (Kingston Rep)