EMBA programs under siege in anti-graft campaign

The Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), a post-graduate program for business leaders, has long been regarded as a talent hub and social platform for business executives and government officials.

But such programs are seeing shrinking recruitment following the Party's anti-graft campaign against collusion between businessmen and government officials.

Recruitment for autumn programs generally starts in early summer from June until July. But many Chinese universities this year have witnessed a significant drop in applicants following the introduction of an eight-point code of conduct issued by the central government in 2012.

The new policy, intended to reduce bureaucracy and boost ties with the public, advocates frugality within the government and demands all officials cut unnecessary expenses.

It is in line with the ongoing hard-line campaign against corruption by the Communist Party of China that targets both "tigers" and "flies," referring to senior and lower-ranking corrupt officials.

The drop in EMBA program enrolment has been applauded by the public, as the programs had become a chance for officials and senior executives to collude using taxpayers' money, said a commentary posted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Scandals

Enrollment of government officials was once a strong selling point for some EMBA schools. The University of Science and Technology of China boasted about their star-studded list, including three mayors, during their promotional campaigns in 2010, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

But now such claims have disappeared from advertisement following a raft of scandals.

Kang Rixin, among the first batch of graduates of the Tsinghua University EMBA program in 2002 and formerly the chief manager of China National Nuclear Corporation and a high-ranking Party member, was fired in 2009 over corruption charges.

Wang Yi, former deputy director of China Securities Regulatory commission and one of the founders of EMBA program at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, was once famous enough to attract huge numbers of students to the course, before he received a suspended death sentence over bribery charges.

Taxpayer's money

In the autumn EMBA course at Tsinghua University in 2013, nine percent of the students were government officials, while 35 percent came from State-owned enterprises(SOEs).

"Local governments and SOEs have tightened their expenses on sponsoring the further study of senior officials," a professor at a renowned business school who refused to be named told Beijing Youth Daily. "The second and third-tier schools are the most affected as it has become quite difficult for them to recruit students this year."

Top-tier universities are affected by the blow too. An EMBA program recruiter at the business school of the Renmin University of China said enrolment numbers started plunging since the announcement of the eight-point code of conduct because "the officials dared not to come out again [to apply for the program]." They had received only 37 applications as of late June, not even enough for a single class.

Tuition fees for such programs range from 400,000 yuan ($64,480) to as high as 1 million yuan per course, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The use of public money by officials for personal activities, including further study, is seen by the public as a form of corruption. The government needs to stop this and save the money for improving people's lives, Yu Wenjun, a social issues critic said in an editorial.

Some stakeholders disagreed with the view, believing that the EMBA program is not the root cause of corruption.

"The majority of the students in our courses come from private businesses and foreign companies, while government officials make up less than 10 percent," Li Ni (pseudonym), an EMBA professor at a business school in Shanghai, told the China Business News.

"Even if collusion between officials and businessmen does exist, it doesn't have to be achieved through an EMBA," Li argued, "The key to curbing collusion is not banning officials from studying EMBA, but containing it within the 'cage of regulation'."

Refuting corruption

The impacts of such programs can also be viewed in a more positive light. Some local officials from remote regions managed to boost the local economy and attract investment through studying EMBA in big cities, the Shanghai-based newspaper reported.

Li said that officials can also benefit from the knowledge learned in the program. Studying business management will not only help them form better related policies and training staff, but will also benefit their career planning.

A manager at a SOE who has attended three EMBA courses in Tsinghua University, Peking University and Beijing Normal University said about one quarter of the classmates in the courses he attended were government officials, and the majority of remaining others are from big State-owned businesses.

"The main goal for businessmen is to extend their networks, while officials wanted both networking and the degree," he said, "In two days you can build contacts with a dozen classmates."

He said the few summer courses he attended all cost more than 10,000 yuan, while the weekly degree courses, last for a year and a half to 2 years, and cost from 100,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan.

"Most businessmen pay the tuition fee themselves, while the government pays half or all of the fees for officials," he said.