On Friday, a group of 18 students studying GCSE Computer Science visited the University of Derby’s Markeaton Street Campus for a university taster day. The group were able to see what life is like for university students and what higher education options are available to them with a specific focus on courses in the field of Computing.

The day started with a campus tour, students were impressed by the specialist facilities available to students on the campus including a Rolls Royce innovation lab, motorsport workshops, specialist computer games labs as well as fully working music, TV and film production facilities. The group were lucky to be given a demonstration of the working TV studio and editing facilities by one of the university lecturers, which included getting to spend time on a working TV set and green screen!

A specialist computer games session was run by Andy, one of the University’s lecturers of Computer Games design. Andy explained his personal background in gaming, having worked on the original Tomb Raider games in Derby. Students were shown the tools that are used by university students to create their own games projects and looked at many well-known games that University of Derby alumni have created and contributed to.

During the session, students explored the process involved in creating a new game from scratch, coming up with their own concepts, artwork and unique selling points. Several groups of students then pitched their games concepts to the group.

In the afternoon students were given an opportunity to research different courses offered by the Computing faculty as well as getting valuable time to talk to a final year student about university life, the steps involved to getting to university and what learning looks like in higher education.