Drop in EMBAs amid anti-corruption drive

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Fudan University has lost 10 percent of its Executive Master of Business Administration students following a ban on government officials using public funds to take expensive training courses, the dean of its management school said yesterday.

Dean Lu Xiongwen said the Fudan University Management School currently has between 700 and 800 EMBA students.

In July, the central government clamped down on officials paying for costly courses from public funds or getting funding from other sources, due to concerns that this encouraged corruption.

“These students quitting has little impact on our university. We understand their situation at this special time and will handle it properly,” Lu told reporters.

Lu was speaking a press conference for the launch of the Financial Times 2014 EMBA ranking yesterday.

In the listing, Fudan’s EMBA program with Washington University ranked first on China’s mainland and seventh in the world.

The dean said most students from government departments, enterprises directly under central government and state-owned companies had quit.

Most had been studying on a Chinese EMBA program run by Fudan without partners.

Dropout rates on EMBA programs at other schools were 30 percent, according to Lu.

Fudan has a range of its own and joint MBA and EMBA programs, with fees ranging from 268,000 yuan (US$43,766) to 600,000 yuan.

Lu said the ban announced by the Party’s Organization Department and the Ministry of Education would help curb problems with some programs.

Seeking contacts

Some universities are said to have provided free courses to government officials and used their presence as a selling point to attract businesspeople seeking contacts.

While Fudan also offers discounts for officials — including half price on EMBA tuition for senior officials, Lu said this helped class composition and assisted government departments.

“We offer the discount to diversify our student structure and share the burden with the government which may not have the budget for officials to get such training, which I think is very necessary,” Lu said.

“In my opinion, officials — especially those in business and economic departments — should get some proper training that will help them better make policies and help the development of the country,” Lu said.

Lu said no more than 5 percent of its EMBA students are officials at government departments.

James Little, academic director of the Fudan-Washington University EMBA program, said it is common for the university to train government officials in the United States.

Washington University offers a leadership program especially for government officials and a program in which government officials study alongside business people, said Little.

Jan Ketile Arnulf, deputy director of an MBA program between Fudan University and BI Norwegian Business School, echoed these views.

“People in Norway want government officials to learn business, because if they don’t understand business, they’re just wasting tax payers’ money.”

Fudan University Management School has produced some 3,300 EMBA graduates.

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