THE names of three provincial- and ministerial-level officials have been removed from the list of enrolled students at the China Europe International Business School on Sept. 9, the China Daily reported yesterday. The names were on the list until Sept. 8.

    The move is in response to a step taken by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee banning government officials and executives of State-owned enterprises from attending any expensive training programs as a cover for networking.

    These training programs in business schools demand high fees, sometimes years’, or even decades’, worth of officials’ salaries.

    The number of government officials and senior managers of SOEs participating in costly EMBA programs has dropped sharply following the government’s austerity measures, according to an earlier report by Beijing Youth Daily.

    An employee of the EMBA admission office at the Business School of Renmin University, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said: “Many government officials do not dare apply for the business program after China stepped up the anti-corruption drive.”

    An EMBA is different from an MBA, which is popular in Western countries, because EMBA courses target senior administrators of large enterprises. These courses were previously popular among China’s government officials and SOE executives.

    Thirty-five percent of EMBA course students at Tsinghua University last fall were SOE executives, and 9 percent were government officials.

    The tuition fee for an EMBA course is normally between 400,000 yuan (US$64,000) and 1 million yuan. Some officials and executives previously paid part of the tuition themselves — but some were totally financed by public funds.(SD-Agencies)