The HE Institution award highlights those universities and 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 years finalists:

• De Montfort University
• Falmouth University
• Howest DAE
• Norwich University of the Arts
• University of South Wales

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

Howest DAE is a publicly funded educational institution in Belgium that succeeds year after year in delivering quality trained graduates for the global entertainment industry. They believe and prove that quality education shouldn’t be that expensive by providing student the opportunity to study without having to take out any expensive loans, their firm belief is that every talented person should be given access to quality education.

A previous winner of this award as well as previous winners of best GameDev school in The Rookies in 2017 and 2018 they have an incredible track record of achievement. Additionally they have also been fundamental in the further development of the Flemish Games Industry, partnering with the likes of Larian Studios to boost the industry locally as well as introducing 2 new courses focusing on 3D animation and sound design within the past year.

They host roughly 1250 students over their 3 year undergraduate degree, including approx.. 230 international students. Each year their students secure around 130 internships in the entertainment industry with the majority within games studios. Howest DAE can now boast more than 600 alumni across the world working on projects such as; The Division 2, Gears Tactics, Fortnite, Overwatch, Horizon Zero Dawn and Star Wars: Jedi just to name a few.

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