The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will benefit from UTS experience in training sport management professionals for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

A partnership between the Beijing Municipal Sport Bureau, UTS, the University's commercial company Insearch Limited and Beijing's Capital College of Physical Education has seen the launch of a new organisation, the Beijing-Sydney Institute for Sport Management.

The Institute will seek to satisfy a growing demand to produce high level and practical sport professionals to assist in preparation work for the 2008 Games.

The Beijing initiative flows from UTS experience in delivering a specially designed Master of Management in Sport Management for a cohort of Greek students sponsored by the Greek Government. During their studies the students took an active part in preparations for Sydney's highly successful 2000 Games.

The Beijing Municipal Sport Bureau has formally lodged an application to the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) for the Beijing-Sydney Institute for Sport Management to be accredited as the official BOCOG training centre for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The Institute aims to develop international links with sport management academics and practical sport management professionals and will seek to establish partnerships with key sport management training institutions outside China.

It will conduct training for sport managers, sport brokers and social sport agents, deliver English language courses for sport academics and professionals and will train volunteers for the Beijing Games.

UTS Executive Director and Vice-President (University Enterprises), Professor Bob Robertson, and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Business, Professor Rob Lynch, have been elected as the Institute's Consultative Committee Vice Chairman and Management Committee Vice Chairman respectively.

Managing Director of Insearch China, Mr Jonathan Yan, has been appointed Deputy Director of the Institute.