Salford's Sydney site

Lester Stump has one of the key jobs in preparing for the Sydney Olympics - largely thanks to a University of Salford online masters degree in construction IT.

He is overseeing construction of all 35 non-competition venues, including the training grounds, the major accreditation facility and a bus depot big enough to hold 1,000 buses - set to become the largest in the world.

Mr Stump decided to apply for a place at Salford after seeing the course listed in material put out by the government. Studying online with texts sent from England and discussing the modules with the 20 other students scattered across Asia, Africa and Europe has been highly enjoyable, he said. "The course has provided me with a process and a means to handle the enormous amount of information this job entails," he said.