The 11th (2013)

The 11th Advanced Public Administration Program was offered from August 15, 2013 to September18, 2013.

The third five-year plan of this program starts this year. Based on the assessment of the previous 10 programs, the training was offered at home (School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University) and abroad (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Kennedy School). It focused on current development and reforms in China and related goals of the country, taking into account theories and practice of public administration. The theme of this training program is the challenges and opportunities of urbanization. In addition, the length of the program and the number of participants were substantially reduced to adapt to the new situation and new demand. The length of training was cut down to five weeks (2 weeks in China and 3 weeks abroad) and the number of participants was reduced to 25-30. After the approval of the central competent authority, 27 participants from 15 provinces (or municipalities/autonomous regions) enrolled in the 11th Advanced Public Administration Program, including eight ministerial-level officials and six provincial level officials. Wu Jingping, member of the Standing Committee of CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Director of the Publicity Department, serves as the head of the class.

This program was streamlined to highlight the topic of urbanization. On the premise that popular quality courses and lectures were retained, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard Kennedy School re-designed the program to help participants understand theories and practices of public administration in relation to urbanization and social and economic development by using the urbanization process in the United States as example, covering urban planning, urban services, infrastructure construction, financial services, community governance, performance statistics and other topics. Domestic and international practice case studies, including practice in the reform and opening up process in China, were used and compared to deepen the participants’ understanding of basic theories and to help them to think critically about the integration of learning and doing. During their stay in the United States, participants visited urban communities, senior apartments and infrastructure projects in Michigan (Grand Rapids) and Massachusetts (Boston, Cambridge and Somerville), met and exchanged opinions with representatives of local government which helped them gain a better understanding of public administration practices in the United States.