Higher Education Development in Myanmar

The Ministry of Education created a Thirty-Year Long-Term Education Development Plan to improve the quality of education in Myanmar. The Plan aims to inspire creativity, analytical thinking, and a desire to learn in students. All subjects and disciplines have undergone review. New assessment techniques are being administered to test students depth and breadth of knowledge associated with critical thinking skills to replace the old assessment techniques of rote memorization and fact regurgitation. The Plan desires to create new curriculums and teaching methods to instill analytical thinking, creativity, and modern technological skills in students. A large task of the Thirty-Year Long-Term Education Development Plan is to change the teaching methodology in higher education to learning centered approaches such as project-based learning, problem based learning, and fieldwork. All higher education institutions now have computer training centers and multimedia lecture rooms to improve technological literacy and presentation skills. Teaching seminars and workshops help teaching learn how to promote critical thinking, analytical thinking, problem solving, and creative thinking.

Since December 2002, all universities offer core and foundation courses to expand students' knowledge and provide a more holistic education. The Thirty-Year Long-Term Education Development Plan aims to introduce more multi-disciplinary courses to allow students to integrate different disciplines and think beyond one discipline. Courses focused on specific regional qualities are administered to attend to community needs. The Plan has also been changing the undergraduate education system from a department based system to a faculty based system. This process started in 2002 and has been being implemented in steps.

In 2011, three-year course degree programs changed to four year degree programs to match Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) higher education standards. The 2011-2012 school year was the first year to add the additional school year to undergraduate degree programs under the Ministry of Education. Coinciding with the new four-year course path, new curriculums and new syllabuses modeling from ASEAN countries have been introduced in undergraduate and postgraduate universities. University credit systems are changing with the inclusion of academic credit from foreign universities through exchange programs. New undergraduate and graduate programs have been launched to support diversified education programs and to prepare specialists at international standards.

Doctorate programs have been introduced within the past 20 years. By 2012, 4,892 doctorate candidates have received degrees from doctorate programs in Myanmar. Currently, 2,053 students are attending doctorate programs from eight different universities. Doctorate programs invite foreign professors for temporary teaching to increase educational quality. Additionally in 2002, a program was initiated that enabled professors 45 years older and with 10 or more years of teaching experience to attend PhD programs and produce a dissertation from their respective field of study to increase their knowledge without subtracting from their current teaching professions.