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Academic Partner Program

We want to help real-time pioneers! Find out how Epic supports schools who are preparing students for the opportunities of tomorrow.

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Overview

What is the Unreal Engine Academic Partner program?

The Academic Partner program helps degree-granting institutions accelerate their Unreal Engine/Twinmotion-driven courses through exclusive benefits. These include enterprise software licenses, premium service subscriptions, co-marketing opportunities, and Marketplace credits for projects - class and research. It is free and open to eligible institutions that want to prepare the next generation of creators/developers for roles in interactive 3D.
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  • Catherine Crawford, University of Texas

    The University of Texas at Austin

    University of Texas at Austin's Radio, Television, and Film (RTF) department has created a motion capture studio class that uses Unreal Engine. Students learn mocap by immersing themselves in a real-time learning environment. By the end of the course, the students learn how to write, direct, virtually shoot, and edit a film within Unreal Engine.
  • Ringling College of Art & Design

    Ringling College of Art & Design offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Game Art, where students in the program are not only designing, creating, and analyzing the visual components of games, but also getting valuable instruction from seasoned faculty members who bring their industry experience to the classroom.
  • Savannah College of Art and Design

    Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) offers an Immersive Reality program that primarily uses Unreal Engine for creating VR content. The program concentrates on different applications of AR and VR, teaching students both technical skills to create interactive content and design skills that emphasize storytelling and user experience design.
  • UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television / UCLA REMAP

    UCLA REMAP

    The Center for Research in Engineering, Media and Performance (REMAP) is a joint effort of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT) and Samueli School of Engineering. REMAP bridges the world-class faculty, staff, and students of the two institutions to explore new enriching cultural forms and empowering social situations enabled by the thoughtful interweaving of engineering, the arts, and community development.
  • Humber College

    Humber College's made in-engine project reveals how new storytelling technologies, explored and embraced in a spirit of co-creation, expand the vocabulary and potential of filmmaking. This cross-disciplinary approach connects social issue content with great design, music, and emotion. 
  • Sheridan SIRT

    Sheridan SIRT (Screen, Industries Research and Training) strives for industry innovation through applied research, prototype content production, training, and a variety of evolved services for any size of company. Together with partners, they develop new technology and business models for content creation in the film, television, gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactive media industries.
  • RIT Rochester Institute of Technology

    Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) 3D Digital Design program blurs the lines between film, games, and digital media education focusing on virtual production, immersive experiences, and real-time technologies. Combined with MAGIC Spell Studios, it provides technical skills that lead to careers in game dev, data viz, and more.
  • Howets University of Applied Sciences

    Howest University

    Howest is a university of applied sciences in Belgium, known for its innovative multidisciplinary approach to education and research. Howest is renowned for developing unique and successful study programs in close cooperation with industry partners, including Industrial Product Design, Digital Design and Development (Devine), Computer & Cyber Crime Professional, ICT & Blockchain Consultant, and Digital Arts & Entertainment. See more on Howest and Unwrap 2022.
  • Breda University of Applied Sciences | Team Sad Viscacha Studios

    Breda University of Applied Science

    Breda University of Applied Science’s Creative Media and Game Technologies Program teaches both masters and undergrad students how to make a game from start to finish. Teachers are recruited directly from the industry, while students are given the space to focus on their own areas of interest rather than having a set of predefined topics to learn. 

SuAnne Fu

​​ITGM/ARVR Chair

“Unreal Engine has flipped the scales and gave our artists  the creative control over designing digital content. That has been a game changer and impacted our school’s results for game development, immersive realities, and countless design innovations.”
SuAnne Fu has more than 20 years of industry experience in immersive computing and user experience design. She’s currently part of the interactive design and game development department at Savannah College of Art and Design. 

An active member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, SuAnne specializes in fundamental interactive theories, cultural impacts of technology, and methods in which applications of real-time processes and disruptive technology influence education and design.

SuAnne Fu

​​ITGM/ARVR Chair

“Unreal Engine has flipped the scales and gave our artists  the creative control over designing digital content. That has been a game changer and impacted our school’s results for game development, immersive realities, and countless design innovations.”

Brian Burton, Ed. D.

Digital Entertainment Technology Associate Professor and Faculty Lead, Abilene Christian University

"Unreal Engine has allowed us to go further, faster with our students. Environments, animation, multiplayer games, virtual production—we’re diving deep and Epic's incredible support is really helping us prepare our students for the many opportunities of content creation."

Jeremy Nelson

Director, XR Initiative, University of Michigan

"The immersive XR experiences we've created include a virtual nuclear reactor, a VR construction architecture course, and a VR chemotherapy simulation. We are excited to build off of our work in Unreal Engine to pivot into virtual and immersive production to create the online courses of the future."

David Long PhD

Director, RIT MAGIC Center | MAGIC Spell Studios

"Unreal Engine is the core technology we use for teaching and learning virtual production. From stop motion workflows in miniature to full volume production with live actors, it’s the heart of our creative curriculum and engineering research."

Benefits

University aid

  • Free ArtStation Pro upgrades, RealityCapture and Sketchfab for Teams licenses
  • UE Marketplace credits 
  • An initial gift of $500 (credits), with $250 (credits) extra per semester

Marketing support 

  • Licensed use of our Academic Partner logos
  • Promotion of brand, programs, and student projects on our channel

Student support 

  • Advance information on internships and hiring events
  • Open access to learning resources on the Epic Developer Community
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Apply now

 Interested in applying?

 Check out our full eligibility criteria to learn more about how our verification process works, then use the form below to submit your application. We look forward to hearing from you!