A ceremony to open the facility, which will look into improving academic knowledge of the sport and developing and teaching korfball, was conducted yesterday.

In attendance was Dr Jan Fransoo, President of the International Korfball Federation (IKF), and Professor Jiongtian Liu, the university’s President.

Also at the event were officials from the country’s Sports Ministry, the Chinese Korfball Association and Dr Inglish Huang, President of IKF Asia.

During the ceremony, it was confirmed by Prof Liu that Ben Crum, the IKF’s senior coaching advisor, has been named as a visiting Professor at the university.

Recent research into the sport has focused on the social values of korfball and developing a new typle of shot-clock which can be attached to the post.