Game Over For Women Programmers

Game Over For Women Programmers
An industry which celebrates violence and the exaggerated female form might expect to be an all-male domain - but a university launched a frantic search today after a prestigious new computer games degree failed to attract a single woman.

The Microsoft-backed honours course has had applications from 106 male undergraduates, but now hopes to strike a gender balance by holding a series of summer camps.

Staff at the University of Derby said it believes the women-only taster days will persuade female students they have important roles to take up in the sector.

John Sear, lecturer on the BSc (hons) computer games programming course, said: "We are very pleased with the interest this new course has already generated, reflecting the demand for jobs in what is a multi-billion pound global industry.

"However, the fact we have had no applications from women reflects a perceived gender divide within the industry. It is something we would like to address to interest more women into this subject area."

The university's business school has opened a new �150,000 centre designed with help from leading academics at Microsoft, but industry researcher Lizzie Haines said the investment would be wasted without female students.

She said: "Girls don't know that they can work in the games industry, they're not told that games is