It’s lunchtime, but within the offices of the National League for Democracy (NLD), nobody is stopping work. As we go up a decent staircase into an office hung with portraits of leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her father General Aung San, activists work energetically around tables strewn with documents and maps. Student volunteers flick between drafting policy papers on antiquated PCs and checking Facebook on their iPhones.
The NLD, Burma’s main opposition party, is investing great energy in drafting the country’s new higher education bill. It’s a political priority for the party and its leader, who has called on international support to rebuild the country’s universities.
Last week we arrived in Burma for the primary UK higher education sector-wide mission because the civilian government was returned last year. Led by the united kingdom Higher Education International Unit and coaching Gateway, the mission includes sector organisations and representatives from the colleges of Manchester, Nottingham, Roehampton, UEA and the Institute of Education. On this, the mission is following within the footsteps of many UK institutions which have visited the rustic and sometimes are already developed successful partnerships here.
Why now Despite the true optimism generated by 18 months of rapid political reform, the generals retain control. The newest budget, hailed as a breakthrough, still allocates thrice as much funding to the army as to education.
But with the easing of international sanctions, that is timely for UK institutions to reengage with the educational community in Burma. In London last year, Aung San Suu Kyi told a joint session of the homes of Parliament: “It’s miles in education particularly that i am hoping the British can play a main role. We’d like short-term results, in order that our people may even see that democratisation has a tangible, positive impact on their lives.”
Daw Suu, as she is affectionately known by supporters, has described Burma’s education system as “desperately weak”. Inside the 1950s, Yangon University was the jewel within the crown of south-east Asian higher education. University leaders and government officials came to Burma to be informed design a successful higher education system.
Today, Burma’s universities bear the scars of decades of under-investment, neglect, or even deliberate degradation. University campuses are lacking basic communication infrastructure. Scientific equipment in laboratories is restricted and outdated, and libraries are under-resourced.
There is, though, a sincere enthusiasm to collaborate internationally. In the course of the delegation, we heard from university rectors, government officials and opposition leaders who all saw greater collaboration overseas as paramount to raising quality at home.
Attracting foreign academics to Burma for brief-term visits for teaching and research is a direct priority. After decades of isolation, Burma’s academics want contact with their counterparts overseas. Academics from Japan, Germany and South Korea are already in Yangon University, funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. They’re delivering lectures and seminars, supervise and view PhD candidates, and develop plans for joint research projects.
In teaching, the govt desires to encourage foreign universities to run programmes in Burma. Opportunities exist to develop joint and double degrees, but within the short term delivering certificate and diploma programmes may prove to be worthwhile place to begin for partnerships between UK and Burmese universities. “These are quick wins,” U Zaw Htay, director general for higher education, told us. “We need to work out these start tomorrow.”
International branch campuses also are portion of the government’s plans. a personal universities bill is planned, so that you can allow overseas institutions to set up joint or wholly-owned campuses in Burma. The policy also has the support of the opposition NLD.
Overlapping reviews
However, these opportunities exist in a policy environment that is beset by complications. Both government and opposition are leading simultaneous and overlapping reviews of upper education policy. The great Education Sector Review (CESR) is led by the Ministry of Education, with considerable financial and technical support from major international donors including UNICEF, AusAid and the UK’s DfID. Its first rapid-review phase has just been completed.
Meanwhile, a parallel review process is being led by parliamentarians and the NLD to develop and draft the brand new higher education bill. Although no overarching vision has yet been articulated, three clear policies can already be identified: firstly, freeing university leadership from the direct control of the govt; secondly, prioritising resources to support the restoration of Yangon University as a global-standard research university; and thirdly, enshrining academic freedom – not only academics’ and students’ freedom of speech and freedom to publish, but additionally allowing university applicants to select their very own disciplines, rather than being assigned subjects in response to highschool grades.
The two processes are neither complementary nor cooperative. The govt. is unlikely to simply accept the NLD’s key demand of full institutional autonomy. Contact between the 2 sides has all but led to recent months.
A clash of timetables is additionally imminent. The NLD expects to table the hot higher education bill later this year, in which point the CESR is not going to yet have completed its main review process or made its recommendations. It’s unclear where this will leave the federal government-led CESR should the bill pass into law.
There is another uncertainty, altogether more fundamental. The velocity of the political transformation in Burma for the reason that release of Aung San Suu Kyi last year was encouraging. But she herself has warned against “reckless optimism” and locals remain sceptical that the present ‘opening up’ is genuine and permanent. The elections scheduled for 2015 represent a real unknown or even the foremost confident Burma-watchers are reluctant to invest at the political landscape beyond this point.
Andy Heath is Asia policy officer on the UK Higher Education International Unit – follow it on Twitter @InternationalUt
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