Fudan University is to become the first school in the country to start a one-year course that will help entrepreneurs and businessmen broaden their horizons.

The course, which will cost 38,000 yuan (US$4,750), is a guoxue (sinology) programme that will teach businessmen about literature.

According to Chen Xueming, the vice-dean of the philosophy department at Fudan University, many people have already confirmed they will attend the course.

On the new course, Chen said, students will be asked to study more than six different traditional Chinese classics the Analects of Confucius, The Book of Mencius, The Great learning, The Historical Records, The Book of Zhuangzi and the Dream of the Red Mansion.

"We think that these six books are the most outstanding works that illustrate traditional Chinese culture," Chen said.

The course is open to MBA or MPA (master of public administration) graduates and company executives.

Chen said the course was aimed at improving participants' thinking so they could perform better at work.

There is much demand for this kind of course among MBA and MPA graduates.

Fudan University opened a humanities course for its MBA and MPA students last September.

The course, which included Chinese and Western culture, was so popular that it attracted about 150 students.

"However, most of these students told us they wanted to learn more about Chinese culture after graduation this September," said Chen.

"That is why we planned this guoxue course."

Donald Choi is one of those who will attend the course.

He is a senior executive at Tyco International Ltd in Shanghai.

"I think it will be a very interesting course as we will have a precious chance to communicate with prestigious guoxue scholars," Choi said.

Chen said all the teachers were experts in the six classics and also had an insight into modern society.

Referring to the high price of the course, Xu Zhong, a top official with Fudan, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that the university had invested a lot in the course, which will hire prestigious scholars as teachers and use advanced teaching methods.

"Most of the revenue will be used for development funds for the departments which run the course, Xu said.

Fudan is not the only university that will launch such courses. Both Peking University and Tsinghua University are planning to open similar courses in Shanghai.

Tsinghua University will start its course in October with a tuition fee of 26,000 yuan (US$3,250).

According to Liu Tielong, who is in charge of the course, Tsinghua will try to convey some useful ideas from traditional classics to the students so that they will benefit in the management world.

But not all people support the course.

Zhou Guoping, a renowned philosopher at the China Academy of Social Sciences, said he did not like such courses.

"To run such a course looks like putting on a commercial show in which students cannot learn the essence of guoxue, which is a deep and comprehensive cultural system," he said.

Those thoughts were echoed by Huang Wei, a writer in Shanghai.

"As guoxue is a tough subject, not all people are qualified to study or teach it," Huang said.

Editor: Wing