The explosion of the creative and digital industries in Bournemouth has been well documented; from the Tech Nation report in 2015 that highlighted Bournemouth as having the ‘fastest growing digital economy in the UK’, to a special report in magazine The Drum about Dorset’s creative rise.
Bournemouth University plays a key role in the growing creative and digital industries, with many graduates choosing to stay and work in these industries locally. An article about Bournemouth’s creative edge in The Telegraph specifically pointed to Bournemouth University graduates as being ‘key to this new lease of life’.
In the Tech Nation report, the number of digital start-ups in Bournemouth was found to have risen by 212% between 2010 and 2013. Graduates have stayed to work at digital companies such as Bright Blue Day, while co-founders of the digital agency Adido are all Bournemouth University graduates.
Furthermore, The Drum highlighted Bournemouth University’s Oscar-winning graduates as a key part of the town’s rising digital reputation.
BU graduates have worked on Oscar-winning Hollywood blockbusters such as Gravity, Interstellar and Avatar. One such graduate, Andy Lockley, has twice been on stage at the Academy Awards to personally receive an Oscar for his visual effects work on Interstellar and Inception.
Speaking at the BFX Festival, an international visual effects, animation and games festival based in Bournemouth with key university involvement, Michael Kaschalk, Head of Effects at Walt Disney Animation Studios in California, said to the Bournemouth Echo: “We’re impressed with what Bournemouth has – the level of both technical and creative artistry that’s been coming out of this school is definitely impressive.”
Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of Bournemouth University’s contribution to the creative and digital industries came from British Prime Minister David Cameron, who stated during Prime Minister’s Questions in 2014: “Bournemouth University has excellent courses that have helped to build up the British post-production and facilities industry, which are busy helping to create blockbuster films.”
This was a sentiment the Prime Minister echoed in 2015 following the publication of the Tech Nation report when he said: “When we look at film and television and we see the great results at the BAFTAs, the high hopes we have for the Oscars [and] British film and television conquering the world, Bournemouth University plays a very important part because its training of some of our digital effects specialists [and] because of many of our creative people – [are] an absolutely key part of this vital and growing industry.”
To find out more about creative courses at Bournemouth University, visit our course pages.