Non-Communist party considering push to ban officials from MBAs

A proposal by a non-Communist political party to ban officials from taking certain master's business programs is expected to be submitted to the political advisory body of Guangdong province, and is aimed at preventing corruption among officials and businessmen.

The Guangdong Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang (RCCK) will bring the proposal to the Guangdong provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the Nandu Daily reported Thursday.

An inside source from the RCCK Guangdong Committee, who asked not to be identified, told the Global Times that it needs more time to decide whether to submit the proposal to this year's session of the CPPCC Guangdong Provincial Committee.

The Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) programs are mainly designed for managers and entrepreneurs, said the proposal, and officials should be encouraged to take the MPA (Master of Public Administration) programs.

The EMBA programs do not provide essential knowledge for officials, and instead will just provide a platform for businessmen and officials to extend their social networks and possibly prompt corruption, the proposal said.

According to the 2010 survey of Forbes China on the country's 45 business schools, government officials accounted for an average of 8.3 percent of those surveyed, the proposal said.

Among the 45 schools, the proportion reached above 10 percent in the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University, with the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) being the highest with 11 percent.

The deputy bureau-level officials have their degrees subsidized and only pay 50,000 yuan ($8,258) in enrollment fees for the CKGSB programs, the Nandu Daily reported.

A CKGSB staff member refused to comment on the subsidy policy, but said one program this year will cost 718,000 yuan per student.