Esports BA (Hons)
Length:
3 years
Immerse yourself in Esports culture and be at the forefront of a rapidly growing multi-million industry.
Esports at Norwich University of the Arts is designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the rapidly growing world of competitive gaming. This course bridges the gap between passion for gaming and professional opportunities, preparing you to engage with and develop a critical insight into issues facing the multi-million-pound global esports industry; combining theory, practical experience, and industry engagement, the course equips you with the skills, knowledge, and networks required to excel in an emerging global industry.
Whilst playing and understanding games is a core component to the learning, this course goes beyond that by critically and creatively exploring the wider structure and units of international Esports, such as event management and production, broadcasting, marketing and business, coaching, team and community management, game design and game studies. By immersing you in a range of disciplines and real-world scenarios, the course aims to develop a new generation of skilled professionals ready to lead the future of sports.
Why Study with us
- Industry-focused curriculum: Our cutting-edge Esports degree curriculum is designed in collaboration with industry leaders, ensuring that the learning experience is relevant, practical, and aligned with current and future trends in the rapidly growing sector of international Esports.
- Real-world experience: You’ll gain practical experience through live Esports events, partnerships with local and national organisations, and charity livestreams, giving you the opportunity to develop your portfolio and build a network of industry connections.
- Collaborative creative environment: Students at Norwich University immerse themselves in a vibrant creative community with opportunities to collaborate on a range of cutting-edge projects with students on Games Art and Design, Animation, Moving Image and Sound, Business Management and Psychology.
- State of the art facilities: Experience hands-on learning in our dedicated Esports labs equipped with a professional setup for live streaming setups, competitive gaming, and the latest broadcasting technology.
Course Content
Integrated Foundation Year (optional)
Our Integrated Foundation Year is designed to equip students with the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to thrive in their chosen degree subject. The course provides a comprehensive introduction to various disciplines, blending critical thinking and creative problem-solving with practical hands-on experience. This year serves as a bridge to undergraduate studies, allowing students to explore their interests within a supportive and inspiring environment, while familiarising themselves with the campus, workshops, and tutors.
Year 1
Your first unit pivots around playing and introduces concepts of health, well-being, nutrition, skills, strategies, and analysis through the lens of playing competitive games. This unit is also designed to introduce you to the world and culture of esports. The focus is on understanding the fundamentals of esports games and genres, dissecting professional playstyles, and reflecting on personal gameplay. Students will analyse games from multiple perspectives—player, spectator, and designer—and investigate esports athletes’ physical and mental demands through rules, gameplay analysis, strategy, tournaments and game types.
40 credits
This unit introduces the construct of The Player to shift students’ mindsets from passive gamers to critically engaged participants and content creators. Coaching and player management are provided context through course-led esports tournaments, composed of student teams, to provide the opportunity for each to act as player, coach and manager. Psychology has a big influence, and key concepts, including focus, determination, emotion, stress, etc., are unpacked throughout the unit to provide the foundation for future learning. Delivery in this unit is framed around collective understanding and experience of esports as an event to introduce marketing and business, events management, broadcasting, and video production. Critical studies are woven throughout the course to complement and inform all aspects of the student learning journey.
80 credits
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
Year 2
This unit provides the opportunity for students to transition from participant to organiser through The Event. Students will learn the intricacies of planning and executing an esports event, from local tournaments to large-scale national and international competitions, covering all aspects of the event, including event management, marketing, broadcasting, and audience engagement. Working in groups, students will take on different roles during each event—such as players and coaches, events organisers and analysts, and broadcasters and producers—to simulate a professional esports environment. This process will be explored through multiple cycles, culminating in a student-run live event. Through hands-on workshops and technical sessions, students will build an understanding of a broad range of areas, including health and safety, use of broadcast equipment, social media, community management, live streaming, and shoutcasting.
80 credits
This unit encourages students to Diversify their skills and explore the importance of teamwork and collaboration within broader creative industries, applying their unique skills to diverse disciplines. Students will develop a critical understanding of contemporary issues arising within the esports industry through discussion and lectures. Through project work, students will rapidly develop their skills by applying their learning to one of three new contexts: broadcast and production within moving image and sound, brand identity and digital marketing within games, and events management within business management. The goal is to foster collaboration across disciplines, developing a holistic understanding of how skills developed within an esports context are transferable across creative industries.
40 credits
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
Diploma Year (optional)
Students have the opportunity to spend a year after the second of their degree (or the third year if studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year) enhancing their employability options through a Level 5 Diploma. They can choose from courses designed to provide:
- opportunities to gain industry insight, developing employability skills through a series of supported experiences, expanding professional networks and building confidence in the workplace, or
- an introduction to creative computing, building an understanding of how coding skills can be used to advance and complement creative practice.
Final year
This is the first and shorter of the two units that make up your final year of undergraduate study. You will utilise the skills you have developed in event organisation, broadcasting, and business management and apply them to this new context, demonstrating the impact esports can have in raising awareness of global issues. Students will design the branding, manage the livestream production, and engage an audience to raise awareness for their chosen cause. You will also produce a research report to pursue specialist interests and enhance their knowledge of the esports sector, expanding on the research ideas developed in your second year. By the end of the unit, you should feel well prepared to work independently on your final project and have a clear trajectory towards launching your professional career as a graduate of Norwich.
40 credits
Your final unit allows you to research, conceptualise, and create a self-initiated final-year project(s), building on the skills, knowledge, and understanding you have gathered throughout your course that reflects your chosen career trajectory. Students will have a strong degree of autonomy over their project topic and the format they wish to use. Through detailed research and critical analysis, you will establish why your chosen topic matters and how it contributes to current conversations in your field. By the end of this project, you should have a well-defined proposal that reflects your artistic and academic journey and positions you to make a meaningful contribution to your chosen field.
80 credits
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
Careers Information
Our Esports degree will prepare you for a career in a billion-dollar industry that is rapidly growing. Students graduating from the Esports course will possess a diverse skill set, including strategic thinking, critical analysis, and effective communication—both on-screen and behind the scenes. There is a demand for a variety of roles within the industry varying from recruitment, event management, game development and production techniques.
Typical career paths include
- Esports coach/analyst
- Content creator
- PR or marketing executive
- Community or social media manager
- Broadcast or production crew
- Event manager
- Agent
- Organisation owner or manager
- Esports entrepreneur
You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our Business and Employability Team to help support you as you plan your career.
Tabbed Section
Typical UK offers
A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BCC (104 UCAS Tariff points) or above. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, Norwich University of the Arts will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.
BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in an art, design or media related subject
BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction* in an art, design or media related subject
T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above
UAL Extended Diploma
Merit
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 26 points
Norwich University of the Arts welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio (if required), responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.
If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.
If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.
International applications
We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.
Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).
We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.
You can email us on international@norwichuni.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.
2024/25 University fees for new entrants
Norwich University of the Arts will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs
Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements. They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay Norwich University of the Arts’ tuition fees upfront.
Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.
| Fee status | Course | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £9,250 |
| Overseas | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £18,000 |
Inflation in subsequent years
The rules for inflation on fees in subsequent years depend on the type of fee status and level.
- For Home undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.
- For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.
For Home and overseas postgraduate degree students starting in 2024, fees will remain the same for each year of your course.
Financial support for UK students in 2024
Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable Norwich University of the Arts bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.
International students
We offer a range of scholarships for international students to support your studies with us.
- Group briefings
- Academic tutorials
- Group tutorials
- Lectures
- Workshops
- Critiques (crits)
- Seminars
- Finished pieces of work
- Presentations
- Written work
- Your research
- A reflective journal
News
@norwichuniarts
Norwich University of the Arts is proud to announce that it has been named the inaugural Arts University of the Year by the Daily Mail University Guide…
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Norwich Graduates announced winners in Global Creative Graduate Showcase 2024
Two Norwich graduates have been awarded the highest accolade in Arts Thread Global Creative Graduate Showcase 2024
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Body Matters AHRA International Conference
Thursday 21 November – Saturday 23 November 2024
The 21st Architectural Humanities Research Association International Conference is taking place at Norwich this November, with the theme ‘Body Matters’.
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In conversation with
Lucien is a third year student studying BA (Hons) Animation, specialising in stop-motion.
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