Starting from 2017, applicants for Master of Business Administration programs will have to take a national entrance exam rather than those conducted by separate universities, according to the Ministry of Education.

Universities with MBA programs should stop organizing such exams starting from December, said the ministry as it released a series of regulations on its website.

The regulations are part of a move to make the recruitment and teaching of MBA programs in China, especially the Executive Master of Business Administration, more transparent and standardized.

China's EMBA programs have gained a reputation as a "rich men's club" due to their high tuition fees and the high-end students who often enroll.

In the past, most EMBA "students" were actually government officials, senior managers or owners of enterprises, but in July 2014, government and Party officials were banned from taking such expensive training courses.

The newly released regulations also stipulate that students should take enough courses to get the EMBA degrees. Universities granting degrees with a lower standard or students paying a certain amount of money to purchase EMBA degrees will be strictly prohibited.

The ministry also requests universities running MBA programs to abide by the tuition standard set for all postgraduate programs nationwide and make the tuition for MBA programs public.

About 260,000 people have been granted MBA degrees since 1991, when universities of China started to offer such programs. The number of higher education institutions that offer MBA programs has now reached 231, with about 40,000 students being recruited each year.