'City can be a place that shapes games industry'

STOKE-ON-TRENT has always been fertile ground for innovation.

- Professor Chris Headleand - Head of Games Institute, University of Staffordshire

HIGH TECH: The University of Staffordshire's games hub and, inset, Dr Jennifer Challener, Professor Chris Headleand and Dr Kieran Hicks when the university won 'Best Educational Institution' at the TIGA Games Industry Awards.

The name Wedgwood still carries significant weight across the world, not just because of the ceramics, but because of the way the Wedgwood company transformed a global industry.

Josiah Wedgwood was an innovator, a strategist, and a business leader who understood the power of product, people, and technology.

Fast forward to today and Stoke-on-Trent is home to a new generation of innovators. Just as the Potteries shaped the global ceramics industry, our city is now exporting digital creativity on a massive scale. The games industry is the largest creative sector in the world, bigger than film and music combined, and many of its future leaders are being nurtured right here in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Games Institute at the University of Staffordshire is the largest dedicated games unit in the UK, and one of the largest in the world.

For the past two years we have been awarded the Best Educational Institution by TIGA (one of the games industry's trade bodies), and our students regularly achieve recognition on both national and international stages.

A look through LinkedIn suggests that more games professionals have come through the University of Staffordshire than any other institution in the UK.