Fudan University has upgraded its decade-old MBA course design and made slight changes to its enrollment process, school officials said on Sunday.

The course's credit point value of 42 remains unchanged while the public courses have been lessened to make room for selective courses and practice in the new structure, the school said.

Traditional politics courses have been halved and the new course adopts lectures by many different professors to let the students fully enjoy the rich teaching resources, Fudan said.

English courses have also been decreased in the new course structure.

"The former structure design was made in 1990s," said Qi Xin'e, director of Fudan's MBA program.

"But students' English language ability has improved dramatically compared with those students of the same age a decade ago.

"They don't need so many public English learning courses and that's why we sharply reduced the lessons," she said.

The school has opened about 30 selective courses and has a new emphasis on helping students find jobs, including hosting lectures by managers of big companies and offering internships in enterprises for two to four weeks.

The enrollment changes include a new background check for applicants.

Students can fill in the application form on the school's Website before October 25 that will allow the school enrollment committee to complete the background check before applicants having the written examination.

"Fudan's enrollment method has been good and we add this little procedure to make it more detailed and humane," vice program director Xie Hao told reporters.

(Shanghai Daily October 13, 2008)