The Grads in Games Educational Institution award for Universities highlights those institutions at a Higher Education level who have demonstrated a positive impact with their students over the past 12 months. These are the institutions that are doing the most to help students, giving them the best opportunities to graduate in to a games industry role.

This year we had over 60 individual nominations who were whittled down to a shortlist of 5 finalists who were then judged by our fantastic panel. This years finalists:

• Falmouth University
• Howest DAE
• Norwich University of the Arts
• Staffordshire University
• Wrexham Glyndwr University

Following deliberation by our judging panel, we can now reveal that in their expert decision the winner of this years award is Staffordshire University.

Staffordshire University have a long history of developing fantastic graduates who enter the games industry. In fact they are able to boast that 88% of students end up getting a job once their course is finished. Industry talks are quite common, AAA and indie studios alike visit the students with many of the lecturing staff having an industry background themselves.

Additionally they recently hosted the UKIE conference allowing students to meet and network with many industry professionals as well as hosting their own Gradex event;  held at the end of the academic year where final year students can display their work and have Industry recruiters talk, give feedback and hire students soon to graduate.

We feel Staffordshire University is an excellent example of the quality of teaching at HE level and we are very happy to present this award to them.