Mark Green from the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong came through to talk to us about new media education. Not only did he go and teach at McMaster, but he is a pioneer in computer science and games working at the University of Alberta before going to Hong Kong.
The SCM has about 30 instructors (10 of which do only teaching), up to 450 students, and about 130,000 square feet of space. (They are getting a geometric Libeskind new building. See Announcement of Creative Media Centre.) The programs they offer are around New Media, Film, Installation Art, Animation. They accept about 140 students a year into 2 and 3 year programs.
Administratively SCM is a separate school with no departments and one dean – they encourage people to mix and team teach. “One dean, one focus.” One of the amazing things is the number of applicants they get – over 6000 for 900 interviews and 140 places!
The major lesson they learned starting quickly was the importance of hiring in order to get the right people.