In order to promote the quality of postgraduate education of master of Public Administration (MPA) and enhance their initiative ability of adapting to the social and economic needs, the first Master of Public Administration (MPA) Student Case Competition of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics was held in the conference room 304 of Phoenix Building on the morning of March 12th.
The deputy secretary of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) Education Guidance Committee and professor from School of Public Economics and Administration of Renmin University of China Yang Hongshan, Member of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) Education Guidance Committee and professor from School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University Zhu Chunkui, the vice dean of School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Professor Peng Bo, the vice dean of School of International Business and Management of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Professor LIU Zhiyang, School of Public Economics and Administration of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Professor He Jinghua and other experts participated as judges. Liu Xiaobing, the dean of School of Public Economics and Administration of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics attended the competition and delivered a speech. Besides, advisers including professor Yu Wei who is the director of MPA Center of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, professor Fu Wenlin who is the vice dean of school of public economics and administration, professor Li Hua, professor Jiang Shuoliang, associate professor Zeng Jimao as well as Dr. Tang Guijuan and more than 30 graduate students came and saw the competition.
Students could set up teams freely to attend this competition and 27 students registered as 6 teams participated the competition finally. After discussion of team members, each one of the six teams chose one hot social issue as the case research subject, and then each team needed to invite a teacher to be their adviser according to the needs of the topic they chose. And the adviser provided professional, comprehensive and detailed guidance to the students through the whole process, involved in building the framework of the case, collecting data from the field survey and writing final reports of the case.
The order of presentation was decided by on-site lots drawing. And it was required that no more than 3 people of one team could do the presentation and all teams could use PowerPoint slides to show the scene of the case but the presentation time should be less than 10 minutes. After the presentation, each team should answer the questions raised by judges immediately, and the judges gave some personal ideas and revision suggestions as well. Students learned a lot through the interaction with the judges.
Finally according to average results of scores given by judges, the team named sunrise at sea with the report" From easy rejection to win-win solution -- a Baked Scallion Pancake triggered a public administration problem" won the highest score. And the judges decided to award the second prize to encourage the team as there were still some revision space. Teams named Shen Ma, laughing like the breeze and 16 Executive Administration got the third prize, and the other teams got the encouragement awards.
In order to guide the graduate students majoring in master of Public Administration (MPA) to pay more attention to hot spots and focus issues of public administration practice in our country, and improve the practical problem-solving ability of the graduate students majoring in master of Public Administration (MPA) with the comprehensive use of public administration theory and public policy analysis method, the MPA Center overcame difficulties such as lack of time and experience and the center actively organized and carefully arranged the first Master of Public Administration (MPA) Student Case Competition of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and achieved good results. The first Master of Public Administration (MPA) Student Case Competition of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics helped accumulate cases and experience for case education of MPA, arouse the students’ learning interest in this new way, and provided a new path for the cultivation and improvement of MPA students' six kinds of essential ability. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics takes graduate education mechanism reform as an opportunity with the guide of industry demands and plans to allocated special funds to hold MPA case competition once a year from now on to attract more MPA students. And the MPA case competition is also regarded as a path to enhance MPA postgraduates’ innovation ability and improve MPA training quality.
(Text wrote by He Jinghua and Dou Yili; Photo taken by Yao Yuan)