Many of China’s elite business schools could be hit with bills running into millions of renminbi following the insistence by the Chinese government that high-ranking government officials and managers from state-owned enterprises withdraw from the schools’ high-priced Executive MBA programmes (EMBAs), as part of the government’s anti-corruption drive.

The business schools involved have now learnt that they are expected to pay back the fees of those officials and executives that have been forced to quit their EMBA.

Most badly hit are likely to be the most prestigious schools with the most expensive fees. At the Guanghua school at Peking University total fees for the two-year EMBA – an MBA for working managers – are Rmb620,000. At neighbouring Tsinghua School of Economics and Management total EMBA fees are Rmb560,000.