By the end of 2022, esports disciplines will appear in Russian universities. Rostelecom proposed the idea to the Government. The company is confident that video games will make students more creative and stress—resistant, as well as teach them how to work in a team and make quick decisions.
According to the Kommersant newspaper, the roadmap “New Internet Communication Technologies” has already been approved by the legal commission for digital development headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
According to the document, esports classes will be conducted only in a few universities. But it is not yet specified in which ones. In addition, in addition to esports courses, universities will also teach how to analyze data, develop video games and use technology to create movies and other content.
The authors of the initiative stressed that esports are taught at universities around the world. For example, New York University, the University of Florida and the University of California at Berkeley have courses on playing StarCraft.
In a conversation with Kommersant, the Russian Computer Sports Federation noted that it already cooperates with the HSE and the Financial University under the government. Later, she plans to negotiate with other universities.
17.6 billion rubles will be allocated for the entire program until 2024, of which 8.6 billion rubles will be from the federal budget.
Recall that in 2019, the Internet Development Institute proposed to introduce esports elective lessons in schools as an experiment. He wanted children to learn how to play, for example, Dota 2, Hearthstone, FIFA, World of Tanks and Minecraft. But apparently the idea was not supported.
You can see which Russian universities provide education in game development in our separate material.