Starting today, the Russian International Olympic University (RIOU) is welcoming applications to join the second intake of its groundbreaking Master of Sport Administration (MSA) course, running from September 2014 to June 2015.
RIOU's state-of-the-art campus is based at the heart of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi and first opened its doors to MSA students this September. The English language course is targeted at, but not exclusive to, professionals in the sports industry such as employees of National Olympic Committees, Russian and International Sports Federations, clubs, marketing agencies and other sports industry organisations.

The MSA curriculum combines traditional lectures and seminars with workshops, case studies, interactive classes and practical experience with the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee.
The year's work comprises five core modules: Economics of Sport and the Olympic Games; Management, Politics and the Olympic Movement; Research in Sport Management; Sport and the Olympic Games as a Business; and Sport Marketing and Communications.

RIOU's Rector, Professor Lev Belousov, said:

"RIOU is the first, and only, Olympic university in the world and the goal of our MSA course is to equip our students with the strategic and operational skills necessary to manage sports institutions, events and facilities in any economic environment. Our inaugural intake this year has attracted students from a range of Olympic Movement backgrounds, and 14 different countries. The atmosphere around the campus is therefore genuinely international and professionally diverse. We have students who are Olympic champions and National Olympic Committee professionals and lecturers with in-depth theoretical and practical knowledge of the sports world. I hope that our second intake is just as varied as our first and - in support of this - I am hopeful our students' studies can be substantially supported by adequate grants, as they have been this year."

Evelyn Hopp, a RIOU student from the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), said:

"RIOU's MSA programme is a huge opportunity for me to improve my knowledge about organised sport worldwide. It is great to have professors from all over the world, teaching in their fields of expertise. I, for my part, am really interested in "Management, Politics and the Olympic Movement", so it's a one-of-a-kind chance to learn about the situations in different countries and have the 2014 Winter Games right around the corner."

For further information about the application procedure, admission terms and the MSA programme content, please visit RIOU's website at: http://olympicuniversity.ru/web/msa-eng/documents