More than 700 students will be involved in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games not as volunteers but as interns, working for months before and during the event to help ensure its success.

A cooperation memorandum was signed Friday between the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and 16 Beijing-based universities and colleges. The schools will groom the students to be interns.

Although the interns will work without pay, they are considered different to volunteers, who will also provide services for the Games.

Prestigious schools such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University and Beijing Jiaotong University are included on the list.

"The interns will work much longer than the Games' volunteers, since they have to begin their work at BOCOG as early as one year before the Games start, whereas most of the volunteers work only during the 16 days of the Games," explained Zhang Zhiwei, vice director of the BOCOG's Human Resources Department.

"They have to finish the required lessons of their universities first and then learn more in their specialties to qualify to work for the BOCOG."

BOCOG's Vice Executive President Li Binghua said the students will be busy: "The interns are full-time students in their universities but will take some special classes on Olympic knowledge and certain professional lessons to meet the needs of serving in the Olympics."

"At present, BOCOG has about 500 staff but as the Games approach, we'll need more talented people. We need 706 interns specializing in nine majors to work in 12 BOCOG departments for six months to one year, depending on their posts, before and during the Games," the vice president added.

The 706 interns will be made up of 446 postgraduates, 118 undergraduates and 142 higher vocational students. They will come from such majors as foreign languages, media and communications, logistics and legal affairs.

According to university officials, the undergraduates will be students who have been enrolled this year while the postgraduates will be those who enter next year.

According to Zhang Zhibin of Beijing Normal University's Graduate School, 15 of its postgraduate journalism interns will be involved in the program.

"We still have to discuss with BOCOG the specific classes they will have to take," Zhang said.

(China Daily September 17, 2005)