VISITORS from a prestigious sports university have visited Worcester to talk about how to promote Paralympic and inclusive sport.

Beijing Sports University is considered to be the world's leading university for Olympic and Paralympic medallists.

Its staff visited the University of Worcester, which has also earned a reputation as a world leader for its work with inclusive sport.

Professor Gao Feng, the Chinese university's vice president, Shen Jian, director of the student affairs department, and Lynett Tian, deputy director of its International Education College, met athletes, lecturers and leaders from Worcester, saw key facilities and discussed educational programmes.

The two universities have a history of co-operating with the exchange of teachers and students for further study as well as working together on research.

Their latest collaboration is a major conference on inclusive sport this autumn in China.

Professor Feng said: “We got a deep impression about how much you care about the students who study here – how much you care about them and their future career.

“We visited the students’ disabled dormitories and they give us a very deep impression. You do lots in this area not only in the facilities but you care about the students.”

The visitors were also struck, he said, by the amount of time spent outside the classroom on putting skills learnt into practice and the combined use of facilities like the indoor sports hall for badminton and basketball.

“Our facilities are bigger than here but actually you use it very well, it’s very effective,” he said.

“We will learn a lot from you and it gives us new ideas and helps us in the future on how to make plans for our university.

“It’s very important and valuable in the plans for the two university partners that we should learn from each other.”

The universities also discussed exchanges between lecturers and coaches to work on the training of young football players.

Professor David Green, Worcester’s vice chancellor and chief executive, said: “The Beijing Sports University has produced the most Olympic and Paralympic gold medal winners of any university on our planet.

"Their work is internationally outstanding in many fields.

“It was a privilege to welcome their vice president and his delegation to visit the university and to see the work we are doing – particularly in regards to student welfare generally and in inclusive sport in particular.”