Recently, the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) officially announced that the Master of Public Administration(MPA) program of the University of International Business and Economics has got its certification, which was published on the NASPAA’s official website on July 31, 2019 (https://www.naspaa.org/naspaa-accredits-five-new-degrees). So far, the University of International Business and Economics and Zhejiang University tied for the fourth Chinese university in mainland China that received NASPAA International Certification (before this, universities that have got the certification are Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics).
NASPAA is the most authoritative certification organization in education of international public administration. NASPAA certification is the most influential and professional certification in the world that provides qualification to Master of Global Public Affairs, Master of Public Administration, and Master of Public Policy for its education quality. The University of International Business and Economics started to prepare for NASPAA international accreditation from May 2015. In August 2015, we started to apply for the membership of NASPAA and formally became a member college in January 2016. We submitted self-assessment report in August 2017 and received NASPAA to our university for inspection from March 23 to 25, 2019. After the voting within NASPAA and the General Assembly of the Review Committee during June to July 2019, we finally accredited by NASPAA, and the whole certification took for about 4 years.
Field Investigation Expert Group of NASPAA
We have received strong support from the School and our university in the process of NASPAA certification. All faculties and staff of School of Public Administration, the core team for this certification, and teachers involved in the certification, have spared no effort to contribute to every procedure of the certification. In order to make the international certification go smoothly, the faculty representatives also attended the NASPA annual conventions held in the United States and NASPAA certification theme conferences and workshops held in China. In addition, off-school instructors of MPA, MPA alumni and MPA students have also made great contributions to the result that we successfully certificated by NASPAA.
The core team for certification of the School of Public Administration reports to the NASPAA field team
This international certification fully shows that the MPA of the University of International Business and Economics is up to the NASPAA international standard in seven aspects: target positioning, project governance, faculty performance, student learning, resource allocation, communication channels and student service, and MPA program of our university is comparable to MPA of other well-known international institutions in the world. This certification also greatly enhances the international reputation of the University of International Business and Economics in the field of public administration education, and greatly promotes the internationalization of our university.
NASPAA field team and faculty representatives, alumni and students from the School of Public Administration
However, this certification also poses stricter requirements and greater challenges to the MPA program of the University of International Business and Economics in terms of teaching reform and internationalization. In order to improve the teaching level and other standards of MPA in an all-round way and to keep pace with the world first-class universities, the School of Public Administration will further integrate and optimize the teaching staff to provide more support for teachers’ career development, improve the teaching environment, increase investment in teaching, create better conditions for students’ learning and research, deepen exchanges and cooperation with other well-known universities (NASPAA members), expand the admission of overseas high-level students, and cultivate high-level personnel with international perspectives in the filed of public administration, thereby comprehensively enhancing the international influence of the University of International Business and Economics.
