APRU on JUMPSTART: How Esports Fellowships Can Pave the Way for A Stable, Ethical, Diverse Industry
December 22, 2020

Though esports currently offers fame and riches to those playing at the highest levels, the involvement of academic institutions like universities is expected to provide new opportunities and make the industry more sustainable.

01

Written by Reethu Ravi
Original post on JUMPSTART

With the global esports market valued at US$1.1 billion in 2019 and expected to grow to US$6.81 billion by 2027, esports is beginning to offer serious potential as a career option for young gamers.

Market growth has received a jolt from the increasing popularity of video games, awareness around esports, audience reach, engagement activities, and mobile usage in emerging countries. Technological infrastructure for league tournaments has also improved. Furthermore, esports also experienced a triumphant rise in viewership and audience engagement amid the pandemic.

Amid this shift, universities and colleges are beginning to offer esports programs and fellowships to turn out skilled professional gamers. In the U.S., several universities are offering esports degree courses, and over 100 high schools have started esports programs.

Meanwhile, offering students a curriculum that goes beyond the technical know-how, the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), a network of leading universities linking the Americas, Asia, and Australasia, launched the first and largest global inter-university Esports Fellowship Program on December 12.

With a vocational scope beyond just the gaming, the program will expose students to a wide range of possibilities in terms of career and employment in esports, according to APRU Secretary-General Christopher Tremewan.

Speaking to Jumpstart, Tremewan adds that along with the technical aspects of the industry, the program will also provide “exposure to some of the issues that are not normally dealt with, within the more technical side or the player side.”

Meanwhile, the research side will explore the psychological impact of gaming and esports and ways to make it “a more healthy industry with elevated ethics on diversity, inclusion, and dealing with the issue of addiction.”

Christopher Tremewan, Secretary-General of APRU

At the end of the year-long program, each student will also have to come up with an original project. Unlike a typical undergraduate program, the APRU fellowship is “an establishment of an international community of professionals who are concerned with the broader shaping of the industry in the future,” adds Tremewan.

“I think the fellowship is a way of starting to provide leadership and the students themselves are already providing leadership in their own settings. But how can institutions then pick up this wonderful leadership and elevate it or give it more influence internationally? And that’s what we’re trying to do,” he says.

How universities can help make the esports industry more stable

Akin to how industries and new technologies go through a hype cycle, followed by downturns and eventual stability, esports is currently at the top of the hype cycle, explains Tremewan. He notes that “there’s a lot of investment going in, but not a lot of profit being made.”

However, the industry is growing, he adds. “It’s a medium shaping the way we interact socially, especially the current generation. So, it’s here to stay, but has a means to become a more stable industry.”

And universities and colleges can go a long way in achieving this. One way, Tremewan says, is by shaping the future of esports through research.

“Looking ahead 10 years – and you can only do that through research – looking at the ways in which we can deal with some of the negative side, but also the positive side. For example, researching what happens to the brain when you’re playing these team sports at a high level and making decisions that split second as a team,” he explains.

In addition to this, business schools are engaged with the business aspects of the industry and how to make it more sustainable, and there are students looking at the therapeutic benefits of gaming. For instance, there’s a lab at UC San Diego that is engaging with autistic people making their own games and looking at how this helps them, Tremewan says.

Furthermore, there are simulation games which look at global issues and ways to solve them.

“As 5G and more virtual reality comes into the picture, the technical aspects of the game will also change radically,” he adds.

Stressing the importance of shaping the industry positively, Tremewan says, “We need to be in on the ground floors, in research institutions [and] educational institutions, making sense of this, and making sure that we shape it in a positive way that contributes to society.”

Not enough universities are providing esports programs

According to Tremewan, a third of the world’s population are watching or playing some form of online game. While most universities are finding out that their students are fully engaged in gaming, not enough universities are “influenced by this new environment into responding.”

Echoing this, Gabriella Leung, co-founder of Hong Kong Student Esports Association (HKSESA), says that there are not many esports programs available in Hong Kong currently. The ones that exist are mostly facilitated by private companies. Leung is enthused about the idea of universities providing a different kind of support.

“That will be very great, because they will do some research, and they’ll have some academic support for it,” she says.

Gabriella Leung, co-founder of Hong Kong Student Esports Association (HKSESA)

Many universities in the Asia-Pacific region are taking up the opportunity, including Yonsei University in Seoul, which has an esports department. While some universities have research groups, others have started to put in place ecosystems that provide academic pathways in esports from high school to tertiary education.

There also diversity courses and projects involving women students, because research suggested that young women who play sports are more likely to study medicine. So universities are exploring programs like the APRU fellowship which can help the students move into another phase of their careers.

Tackling the misconceptions surrounding esports

Tremewan says that while there are several misconceptions about the esports industry, there is also a “real negative side to the industry.” So the key, he says, is to make it clear what the benefits to the society are and to play an active role in dealing with the negative aspects early on.

Taking the example of Facebook, which began in universities, Tremewan says that universities ignored what was happening in their own institutions, and lost out on opportunities to shape and cultivate the social phenomenon Facebook has created. So, rather than waiting until esports has positive and negative effects, as in the case with Facebook, Tremewan suggests that universities need to “recognize it as a huge area of social interaction that we can turn to the benefit of society – economic productivity, education, research, and so on.”

According to Leung, one of the major challenges that gamers in Hong Kong face is the public perception towards esports.

“In Hong Kong, especially for parents and schools, they usually think gaming equals to poor academic performance. And they also think that gaming is very unhealthy – that if we’re promoting esports, we are promoting video game addiction,” she says.

Additionally, Leung says that Asian parents, for whom earning is important, don’t believe that students can earn money through the esports industry.

Leung believes that esports fellowship programs can help change the public’s perception towards this space. Echoing this, Tremewan says that universities engaging with new professional disciplines tends to advance learning and enhance the reputations of such activities.

“For example, if we had any university esports league, it would have very clear ethical standards instead of leaving it just to the publishers of the industry,” he explains.

Compared to traditional sports fellowships, Tremewan says that esports fellowships “are not trying to incentivize top players to come into the university and win games for the university.” Instead, the fellowship plans to take an active role in facilitating employment and “[shaping esports’] future in a responsible way.”

Challenges in Hong Kong

In addition to issues of public perception, gamers in Hong Kong also struggle with the dearth of professional teams in the city. Opportunities are thin on the ground for local gamers to get involved. Leung adds that universities and high schools haven’t introduced esports programs or scholarships. For gamers who want to be an organizer or a caster (a play by play announcer) there are not many ways to learn the techniques.

“[There is] basically no education program for this. So, it is very difficult for them to get a job in the esports industry and get involved in that,” she says.

As a solution, Leung says that it is important for the government and the university to take the lead in educating the public.

“The fellowship program will be a good start. It will be better if there will be a degree program in esports in the universities of Hong Kong. I think the most important [part] is to educate them, and to tell them what esports truly is,” she says.

Furthermore, the networking opportunities that fellowships provide can help promote cross border learning.

“For any sports, it is always good to connect people from different countries, because we can improve ourselves [and] we can know what they’re doing in the industry,” she says, adding that for Hong Kong gamers, it will be beneficial to learn from countries like Taiwan or Korea.

The future

Tremewan says that once the presidents or vice chancellors of universities understand how they can play a role which benefits the university as well as society, “we can see some movement pretty rapidly.”

When universities start to engage with student gamers through education and research, and then engage with the industry and with government, the entire ecosystem will reap the benefits, he adds.

Tremewan says that he’s optimistic about Hong Kong, as the government is supportive of esports. In addition, it is also surrounded by countries which are deeply engaged in esports, such as South Korea.

“We’ve all been sidelined a little bit by the pandemic. But esports is one of the things that has been able to continue, because of the virtual nature,” Tremewan says. “But we’re pretty sure that things again are going to develop quite quickly and Hong Kong could be an important base for shaping a responsible industry internationally.”

Images courtesy of HKSESA and APRU

Related Articles
APRU SWM Forum 2023: Advancing UN SDGs and ESG for a Sustainable Future
more
IESGA's 6th Global Conference Forges Pathways to Empowering Sustainability
more
Indigenous Knowledge Has the Power to Help Address the Climate Crisis
more
APWiL Mentoring Program keeps growing, 4th Cohort takes off
more
APRU Indigenous Knowledges Network meets in Melbourne
more
SDG4GC - How a growth mindset can open a world of opportunity
more
APRU Open Dialogues tackles Gender-Based Violence Prevention in Learning Environments
more
APWiL Mentoring Program 3rd Cohort concludes, having promoted teaching and learning in both directions
more
Routes Towards a Sustainable Society: Forum with Springer Nature Editor-in-Chief
more
Towards a Sustainable Biochar Market in Korea
more
APRU Esports Fellowship Program 3rd Cohort provides ample food for thought on well-being, networking, and universities’ future role
more
APRU Steering Committee 2023-2024
more
AI for Social Good Summit Gathered Academics and Gov’t Representatives to Showcase Joint Research Outcomes Enhancing Wellbeing in Southeast Asia
more
Public Agencies from Thailand Participated in AI for Social Good Summit
more
2023 Global ESG Forum in Singapore Underscores Biodiversity and ESG Reporting as Key Drivers to Sustainable Development
more
CUHK Hosts APRU Undergraduate Leaders’ Program on Sustainable Cities Development
more
The University of Hong Kong hosts APRU Presidents’ Meeting on Sustainable Future Solutions
more
Keio University News: Keio University Launches 2023 Mentoring Program to Promote Female Faculty Member Empowerment and Leadership
more
APWiL Third Cohort & Professor Freshwater as new APWiL Presidential Champion
more
Country Workshop Aims to Turn AI Research Results into Actionable Public Policy
more
Global Climate Change Simulation Offers USC Students New Perspectives on Worldwide Fight
more
UO Students Co-host APRU Global Climate Change Simulation
more
World BOSAI Forum 2023 facilitates forward-looking visits to Japanese APRU members
more
UP News: UP participates in APWiL Mentoring Program 2022
more
APRU on Bloomberg: The next stage: APRU-Google-UN ESCAP AI for Social Good Project now working directly with government agencies
more
Tec News: APRU universities meet in San Cristóbal de las Casas to hold dialog on indigenous knowledge in the Pacific Rim
more
UMelbourne News: An international focus on Indigenous knowledge
more
The APRU Climate Change Simulation- Preparing Students to Lobby Leaders for Vital Actions
more
Congratulations to the winners of the APRU Digital Art Contest, “Level-Up Our World”
more
APRU MetaGame Conference 2022 Successfully Concludes in Hong Kong With Academics Pushing New Ideas on the Application of Esports in Education
more
Congratulations to the winners of the APRU Rampage Invitational Tournament
more
Students from Tongji School of Medicine Enrolled in the Top 10 Entries of the APRU Global Health Virtual Case Competition 2022
more
APRU Brings Universities into the World of Esports with MetaGame Conference 2022
more
CUHK Biologists Unveil the Genetic Histories of Centipedes and Millipedes to Contribute to Studies of Biodiversity and Ecology
more
APRU Steering Committee 2022-2023
more
APRU ends pandemic hiatus with first physical meeting at NTU Singapore and highlights urgency to collaborate through international university networks
more
APRU Readies for Looming Book Launch with Springer on Safety and Resilience of Higher Educational Institutions
more
Graduation Ceremony and Final Presentations of Esports Fellowship Program 2nd Cohort leaves participants in awe
more
APRU on Bloomberg: APRU Readies for Looming Book Launch with Springer on Safety and Resilience of Higher Educational Institutions
more
APRU on The Fiji Times: FNU Students Join Global Climate Change Simulation
more
Congratulations to the winners of the APRU Student Esports Paper Competition
more
Tec News: Tec Professors, in a Global Mentoring Project for Women
more
UBC News: 2 UBC Esports undergrads win industry research scholarships
more
APEC Healthy Women Healthy Economy Prize Accepting Applications 2022
more
APRU on UNESCO News: New report “Moving minds: Opportunities and challenges for virtual student mobility in a post-pandemic world”
more
APRU on SCMP: Covid-19 wrecks exchange programme plans, as record low number of Hong Kong university students went overseas in last academic year
more
APRU on HKMB: Digital games exercise minds
more
UC Davis News: APRU, UC Davis and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Launch Second Cohort of Asia-Pacific Women in Leadership Mentoring Program
more
UCLA News: Building the foundation — and networks — needed to diversify university leadership
more
APRU Esports Fellowship Program Welcomes the 2nd Cohort of Student Leaders
more
APRU on Nikkei: COVID has made a bad situation worse for women academics
more
APRU on SCMP: Virtual foreign exchange allowing students to ‘study abroad’ without leaving home will outlast Covid-19
more
UH News: Esports fellowship creates global opportunities for UH students
more
APRU Metagame Conference 2021 Returns at Cyberport’s Annual Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum
more
Times Higher Education Awards Asia 2021: winners announced
more
APRU Steering Committee 2021-22
more
The 16TH APRU Multi-Hazards Symposium 2021: Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Disaster Resilience
more
APRU Celebrates Successful Completion of Its APWiL Mentoring Program’s First Cohort
more
Congratulations to the 1st Cohort of the APRU Esports Fellowship Program Participants
more
APRU on The Jakarta Post: A Mounting Battle that Starts at Home
more
New APRU Member – Tongji University
more
Esports Webinar Series by YESPORTS and APRU helps exploring career opportunities
more
New APRU member - Simon Fraser University
more
APRU on UWN: Long way to go for parity for women in HE leadership
more
APRU on World Economic Forum: Universities can be 'living labs' for sustainability
more
Asia Summit: ‘penalty systems’ and ‘male allies’ address gender gap
more
Cyberport Brings Together Hong Kong and Pacific Rim Youth for Esports Exchange
more
YESPORTS ESPORTS APPRENTICESHIP Recipient Announced
more
Good-bye 2020, Welcome 2021!
more
APRU Launches the First Global Inter-University Esports Conference and Fellowship Program
more
APRU Quarantunes Competition Connects and Uplifts Student Communities through Music, Boosting Spirits during Ongoing Pandemic
more
Civic Resilience and the COVID-19 Crisis (Part 2 of 2)
more
APRU E-Sports Apprenticeship
more
TEC News: Song of Tec students wins 1st place among universities worldwide
more
Quarantunes Student Music Competition
more
Collaboration, technology and global health policy
more
Asia-Pacific Mayors Academy concludes first cohort
more
New Member Spotlight: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
more
New Member Spotlight: Universidad San Francisco de Quito
more
Upgrade needed for universities’ workplace wellness programs, new APRU survey shows
more
UNU-IAS and Partners Launch Asia-Pacific Mayors Academy
more
Cities and Refugees – 2019 Global Student Design Ideas Competition
more
Sustainable Urban Development Mayors Fellowship
more
APRU joins industry & government in shaping the eSports ecosystem in Hong Kong
more
APRU Inaugural Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Design Field School
more
APRU at the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction
more
APRU-IRIDeS Multi-Hazards Summer School 2014 Report is out now
more
2nd Multi-Hazards Summer School 2014
more
9th Multi-Hazards Symposium 2013
more
Partnering for a less hazardous planet: Interview with Professor John Rundle
more
1
90