Local people's fervency about the master of business administration program has been waning, as MBA providers in Shanghai expect a sharp decline in participants of entry tests for next year's program, today's Shanghai Morning Post reported.

Test sitters for the program at Fudan University, a prestigious local MBA operator, for example, will probably decrease by 20 percent from this year, according to Huang Guochun, deputy director of Fudan administration college's MBA office, though the final data isn't available yet.

Last year, when China started to see a nationwide decline of MBA test sitters, Fudan reported a rise of 100-plus test competitors. The pride is unlikely to reoccur this year, Huang said.

Jiao Tong University, another key MBA operator in the city, will also receive fewer test sitters, said Pan Jie, dean of the university's MBA office. He said the school's test sitters will fall by 30 percent from this year's 2,000-odd to around 1,400.

Viewing the decline of test sitters as a mark of slowdown of the country's MBA education industry, local education experts said it's a result of people's reconsideration of the value of MBA education.

With a quick boom of MBA holders, people find competition fiercer on the job market and it much harder to find high-paying jobs as they had expected.

In this case, many start to reevaluate the program which entails a big cost and some drop the education plan, the experts said.

(Shanghai Daily November 20, 2003)