Daniel Görlich becomes Games & VR Professor in Offenburg

The first combined games and VR degree programme at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences will be supervised by Daniel Görlich, previously professor of VR at SRH University of Applied Sciences in Heidelberg for almost 12 years. The new professorship brings a corresponding degree programme to the capital of Baden-Württemberg's Ortenau region. The programme begins in October.

Since 1 September 2023, Dr Daniel Görlich has been Professor of Virtual Reality & Game Technologies at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany. He is establishing the new degree programme "Virtual Worlds & Game Technologies", which will start for the first time on 1 October 2023. His professorship belongs to the Faculty of Media, which wants to open up strategic development opportunities with the new focus.

Görlich himself was previously a professor at SRH University Heidelberg from October 2011 to July 2023, where he led the Bachelor's programme "Virtual Reality & Game Development" - at the time the only one in Germany with a VR focus.

"Today, studying virtual worlds and games should be as natural as studying computer science or media," says Görlich. "Virtual worlds and video games have advanced to become influential components of an increasingly complex media ecosystem in which all social groups participate. They increasingly link up with other media, art forms and industries, and they are phenomena that want to be scientifically researched, politically promoted, historically appreciated and culturally diverse."

New teaching field for Offenburg

The Virtual Reality & Game Technologies course was launched by Dr Oliver Korn, Professor of Human Computer Interaction at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences and Director of the Affective & Cognitive Institute. Korn had convinced the university management and senate of the concept in 2022 and had brought about the accreditation of the degree programme. Among other things, Korn is the managing director of the quality assurance association RAL Gütegemeinschaft Serious Games e.V.. "Virtual worlds - in games, but also in architecture, industry, sports and many other areas - are a strategic growth field for Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, which perfectly links the Media Faculty with the other faculties and companies in the region," explains Korn.

Colleagues from the university environment in Germany also view the new degree programme positively. "Thanks to games and social media already for decades, later through XR and most recently through the Metaverse, it is hard to imagine the future of our young generations without virtual worlds," professor Dr Lutz Anderie from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences adds in a statement to GamesMarkt. "Their application possibilities are now so versatile that graduates today need a broad understanding of their numerous facets in order to develop successful virtual worlds or even to be able to exist on the market with their own company. The new degree programme in Offenburg provides exactly what they need for this and gives them room for individual development and specialisation."