Universities not equipped to do the practical, says Misner

SAE CEO and founder Tom Misner says that universities are not equipped to do the practical.

"Universities are fine in that they are very well equipped to do BA subjects, those ones that don't have a specific use in real life, but they're not very well equipped to do the practicalâ¦even the theoretical side of a practical subject they can't do," he told GamesIndustry.biz.

"The students are asking for fast laptops, and all they have is one 386, probably without even the right software..."

Misner founded the School of Audio Engineering in 1976, developing the first practical/theoretical curriculum for audio education. Years later, he was approached by the Australian government to run their Qantm colleges for creative digital media industries. Qantm is now being set up in London.

Misner envisions outsourcing SAE's services to the industry in England, as he already does in Australia and Singapore, allowing him to customise programmes.

"For example, in England if we were told there was a greater need for language-based courses instead of creative ones, we could plan along those lines," he said.

Misner notes that there are both a commercial challenge and a curriculum challenge in setting up a school, with the latter challenge lessened by the fact that he bought an established curriculum that already taught students successfully.

Even so, the curriculum must be constantly updated.

"You see, in gaming there's so much to learn, so many things you have to teach, programmes to get used to, languages, on and on.

"What we do is filter it, teach the student what he or she needs to know, rather than just provide them with a library of books," he said.

Unlike universities, in which it takes at least three years to change a course, Qantm can adapt more rapidly.

"We can do it by the next course start date, that's the big advantage - especially gaming, which is a very fast-changing environment.

"And by the fact that we teach in so many different territories, we develop changes very quickly ourselves, so we're always up-to-date, rather than trying to follow trends," Misner said.

The full interview with Tom Misner may be read here.