Thousands of government officials in China prevented from taking expensive MBA courses
Communist Party calls time on popular, expensive postgraduate business courses in ongoing national crackdown on graft
More than 3,000 officials have been stopped from studying for MBAs and other expensive courses as part of the authorities' crackdown on corruption and wasteful government spending.
Officials had been barred from studying several expensive courses, including executive MBAs, state media reported yesterday.
Curbs on the "skyrocketing" cost of courses were listed among the major achievements this year by the Communist Party's organisation departments, which are responsible for personnel management, Xinhua said.
Executive MBAs and similar courses are popular among officials and can cost about 600,000 yuan (HK$758,000) a year, more than 10 times the annual salary of some officials, mainland media previously reported.
A government document issued in July said that all executive MBA programmes would be classified as "expensive" and cadres prohibited from studying for them.
Rather than paying for the postgraduate education out of their own pocket, officials have been known to cover the expenses by using public funds or money from companies or the schools themselves, creating various openings for corruption.
The programmes have been immensely popular on the mainland, where they have replaced golf as the most effective way to network.