Game Studies have been taught at the University of Tampere since the turn of the Millennium. Currently game experts are trained in the international Master’s degree programme in Internet and Game Studies, which started in 2013.
The short history of game education at the University of Tampere begins in the year 1999, when Veikkaus, the Finnish national betting agency, donated a professorship into Hypermedia. The professorship operated jointly between the University of Tampere and the Tampere Technical University, and was located in the Hypermedia laboratory, a special research and education unit. In 2002 Hypermedia was established as a discipline (then at Bachelor level, as a “minor” subject) in the University of Tampere. Game Studies was included as an orientation option to the curriculum. This is also when the Game Research Lab was established. In 2008 Master’s degree studies in Hypermedia (and game studies) was expanded into a full, main subject in collaboration with Information Studies.
The following year, in 2009, a new discipline was established: Information Studies and Interactive Media. Specialization into Game Studies was available in Master’s degree and for the first time it became possible to also continue into a PhD degree. In 2013 the international Master’s degree programme in Internet and Game Studies (IGS) was started. The program was restructured in 2019 into Master’s Degree program in Game Studies (closely linked with bachelor’s in Media Studies).