Nearly 2,000 Chinese civil servants are studying for Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees in an on-going drive to raise the caliber of the country's civil service.

They account for about 80 percent of over 2,400 Chinese students who are working on MPA courses at 24 universities of higher learning across the country.

The MPA program, designed to train qualified personnel in public affairs, public administration and policy research, has become popular in Europe, America and other areas of Asia since it originated in the United States some 50 years back.

China introduced the program in 2001 when 24 Chinese universities were authorized to enroll MPA students.

In China, MPA students carry out studies mostly at weekends, while keeping their original work. The three-year course includes such subjects as the science of public administration, analysis of public policies, political science, public economics, administrative law and quantitative analytical method.

"It has now become a necessity that public administrative personnel should be professionals", said Professor Wang Lefu with Zhongshan University based in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

Wang, who heads the MPA Educational Center with Zhongshan University, said that following China's entry into the World Trade Organization, the quality of civil servants, the administrative capabilities of the government and work efficiency have become important factors that will affect the country's international competitiveness.

"Though MPA education can not exert direct impact on government behavior, it can promote a scientific attitude towards government administrative capabilities in a subtle way so that reform in governmental organizations may produce the uttermost benefit," Wang said.

Latest statistics show that China now has 5.41 million civil servants, of whom, some 52 percent have acquired education at or above college level. Few of these college-educated people have ever received systematic training in modern administrative science.

Professor Xia Shuzhang, dubbed "father of the MPA in China", is the only advisor to the national committee for guidance in MPA professional education.

"Public administration is now a protruding issue that merits attention," said Xia, who believed that introducing the MPA to train Chinese civil servants comes at an appropriate moment when China has achieved huge economic success in the past two decades and started to embark on political restructuring.

(People's Daily April 1, 2002)