On July 12, 2018, an official letter from Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) announced that the MPA program of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics was officially certified by the organization. SUFE has become one of only three accredited schools in China.
The MPA program of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics began to apply for and promote NASPPA international accreditation in October 2012. It became a member College of NASPPA in May 2013, and submitted its self-assessment report in August, 2015. The program was given an on the spot interview in March 2016 and March 2018, and was voted in the affirmative at the plenary meeting of the NASPAA accreditation and peer review committee in July 2018. The certification process lasted nearly 6 years, and garnered positive results for SUFE and it's MPA.
Recently, more than 40 universities around the world have applied for the MPA program to participate in this round of NASPPA international certification, only six universities including Shanghai University of Finance and Economics were approved, the remaining five are famous universities abroad.
The SUFE MPA program received strong support from school leadership, Graduate School and relevant departments, and under the leadership of Professor Yu Wei and Professor Liu Xiaobing as well as the direction of the MPA Teaching Guidance Committee. Thus a series of reforms have been carried out on the MPA project: six teachers are responsible for their respective examinations of students' essential abilities project, the assessment and feedback system of teaching quality take is the leading factor and takes students' essential abilities as its primary index.
Internationalized teaching interaction has been strengthened by holding international workshops in Japan, Singapore and the United States and requiring graduation thesis to include international experience. Through an alumni questionnaire survey and symposiums, the program reformed the direction of teaching content and requirement of employers in a timely fashion. Also, through special lectures and domestic on-site teaching students' understanding of social diversity and leadership was greatly enriched.
Teachers and students of the School of Public Economics and Management, together with experts both inside and outside the school, have made joint efforts to unify the deployment, elaborate preparation, and refine each procedure and index link. All the teachers and office staff of the accreditation team spare no effort to finish the work. It already has added profound academic strength and contributed scholarly work in the field of public administration.
The Chair of University Council Cong Shuhai, President Jiang Chuanhai, Vice President Yao Lingzhen and other school leaders, Graduate School and other functional departments have repeatedly inspected, directed and coordinated the MPA project international certification work thus assisting and contributing greatly to the completion of this project.
