TIGA introduced the TIGA Accreditation process in January 2015 to ensure that universities and colleges can produce graduates with industry relevant skills. The TIGA Accreditation system accredits the very best undergraduate and postgraduate university courses enabling both prospective students and game developers to identify those courses that are producing industry ready graduates.
All TIGA Accredited courses teach skills required by the games industry. These skills are also becoming increasingly in demand in other related industries such as the synthetic training industry.
Courses are examined by a panel of industry and academic experts to ensure that students are developing games industry skills as well as transferable skills (communication, team working, problem solving and so on) important to the games industry and at an appropriate level.
As an important part of the accreditation process courses provide details of the percentage of their graduates finding work in the games industry and also in related industries.
Each course is judged on its own merits and must demonstrate that it works closely with the games industry to stay up to date and relevant. By judging courses in this way TIGA Accreditation is suitable for a wide range of games courses, including those with a programming, art, design or business/entrepreneurial focus.
Universities are also required to show that they have the resources (hardware, software, staff, labs and so on), curriculum, syllabi, quality systems and student support to deliver their courses.
One of the key strengths of TIGA accreditation is that it is not confined to only ‘technical’ or ‘art’ courses, but also covers other game development skills (such as game design, mobile game development, indie development entrepreneurship).
Additionally it is able to keep up to date with the latest developments in game technologies and does not have prescribed lists of skills, which can become limiting in the extremely fast moving games industry. For a course to be accredited the university must have identified specific game developer skill needs and developed their course to meet these.
Accreditation lasts for 4 years at which time courses are re-examined to ensure they are maintaining their standards. If successful they are re-accredited.
Accreditation is open to all TIGA education members. TIGA Accredited courses are supported through TIGA’s educational initiatives and have assistance in remaining abreast of current industry practices.
Every higher education course is required to display information, called Key Information Sets (KIS),that is collected on the
official Discover Uni website
. This information is to help prospective students make decisions about UK higher education courses. Details of which courses are TIGA Accredited will be included from the 2015-16 academic year as part of the Key Information Sets to help students make an informed choice about which courses are most likely to prepare them for working in the games industry.
As of February 2025, 48 courses at the following universities and colleges achieved TIGA Accreditation: Abertay University, Dundee (6 courses); Anglia Ruskin University (3 courses), Bournemouth University (2 courses); Birmingham City University (1 course); Brunel University, London (1 course); Cardiff Metropolitan University (1 course); De Montfort University (3 courses); Norwich University of the Arts (2 courses); Portsmouth University (4 courses); Sheffield Hallam University (2 courses); University of Gloucestershire (3 courses); University of Greenwich (1 course); University of Hertfordshire (2 courses); University of Portsmouth (4 courses); University of Suffolk (1 course); University of the West of England (2 courses); University of the West of Scotland (1 course); Staffordshire University (9 courses); and City University London (3 courses).
