From the autumn semester of this year, people in China will be able to apply for MPA programs, which will be made available for the first time in 24 Chinese universities, including prestigious Beijing University and Qinghua University.

The MPA, or Master of Public Administration, was designed to train management personnel for governments, non-governmental organizations and nonprofit institutions.

With half a century of development history in the Western countries, the program was introduced into China to improve administrations in public departments, said a source from Zhejiang University, one of the 24 universities offering the program.

(People's Daily 06/11/2001)