Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ) will introduce an esports program into its undergraduate program and officially launch an esports certificate program in May 2023.
The growing popularity of eSports and the increasing number of organized video game competitions are drawing attention from the global entertainment, sports and events industry.
With the aim of providing the necessary learning to students who aspire to pursue careers that reflect such demand, TUJ collaborates with the Department of Sports and Recreation Management at the main school in the United States to develop a basic understanding of esports from a business and management perspective. We offer 4 courses to learnOne of them, "Esports: Legal and Ethical Challenges," will start in the summer semester starting in late May 2023, allowing students to earn the credits necessary to earn a certificate of completion.
In addition, in order to clearly show the importance of e-sports, the university has organized an official university team that will participate in domestic and international competitions for the video game "Valorant*".Official esports teams organized by universities are still rare in Japan, but they are common in the United States.Six students will be selected this time to represent the university in external Valorant competitions.In addition to planning to play against domestic university club teams, we also aim to participate in large-scale world competitions such as Red Bull Campus Clutch (Red Bull Campus Clutch = Valorant student world competition).
TUJ strives to provide opportunities for students inside and outside the classroom to develop valuable skills such as communication, teamwork, leadership and strategic thinking, and the establishment of the Valorant varsity team will be a thriving game on campus. The aim is to create a community and further expand opportunities to acquire skills such as those mentioned above.
TUJ Dean Matthew Wilson said, “We are very pleased to introduce an undergraduate esports program and launch an official TUJ esports team, taking another step forward in providing a cutting-edge educational experience. The enormous global popularity of esports is well known, but on the other hand, esports offer a wide range of career opportunities ranging from business, management, broadcasting, media, arts and computer science to law, psychology and medicine. It is not well known that it is a field," he commented.
TUJ has also established an esports website that posts the latest news and announcements related to esports programs, and plans to actively disseminate information in the future.
*Valorant is one of the fastest growing games in the world since its release in June 2020.It is considered an ideal platform for competitions because it attracts a diverse range of players, from casual gamers to competitive gamers, and because it requires strategy and advanced skills.
