Higher education reform in Myanmar: neoliberalism versus an inclusive developmental agenda

ABSTRACT

Myanmar has been transitioning to a parliamentary democracy following a long period of authoritarian military rule, with higher education positioned as a catalyst of and for change. This paper explores the policy reform texts through discourse analysis and the process of their enactment by senior university leaders. Two discourses emerge, one of neoliberalism and the role of globalisation, competition and marketisation. Another adopts traditional Myanmar values and argues for an inclusive, developmental agenda based on local needs using culturally sensitive approaches. The article explores the complimentary and contradictory nature of these approaches and the consequences for reform efforts.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-conflict reform
• neoliberalism
• globalisation
• Southeast Asia
• Myanmar Buddhist values

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Camille Kandiko Howson http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1045-3655

Notes

1 Senior Staff that were part of a British Council-funded year-long training programme in 2018

2 Similar to how this is described in Cambodia in Tan (2008).

3 See for example the brochure describing the chemical engineering department of Yangon Technological University (p.242): ‘The campus environment is unique, both inside and outside the classroom: […] students will kneel and bow to faculty with their face touching the ground, in a show of respect … ’

4 http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/19825-opposition-builds-over-ministers.html

5 This is changing slowly as the basic education system is gradually moving from an 11 year to a 12-year curriculum and all children are expected to do a year of KG before entering grade 1, meaning that eventually all undergraduates will enter the system at 18.

6 Called ‘National Education Committee’ (NEC) at the time.

7 The independent hiring of staff is expected to start in a few universities in the new academic year – i.e. June 2020. According to an interview with the Director General of Higher Education at the MoE in August 2019, it is expected that both Yangon and Mandalay Universities as well as 6 others in Yangon and 6 others in Mandalay (probably the top medical and technological universities) will be given limited autonomy at that time.

8 This of course is bound to create a difference between locally hired staff attached to individual universities compared to staff hired by the Ministry of Education, who rotate and have a government employee status. Whilst the universities are aware that this will create issues, at the time of writing no solutions have as yet been proposed.

9 The BC funded training focused on managing change and engaging senior staff with issues pertaining to develop their own curriculum and assessment, develop a research strategy as well as developing international partnerships with foreign universities.

10 Universities included Myanmar’s flagship universities from Yangon and Mandalay as well as regional universities located in ethnic states.

11 This is how the international aid agencies prefer to be referred to in Myanmar. They include the UN agencies such as UNICEF and UNESCO as well as the World Bank and the major donors such as USAID, the European Union, DFID, DFAT and JICA.

12 The British Council led on issue pertaining to English language and higher education.

13 There are indications that Myanmar HEIs are beginning the process of integration into the ASEAN AUN-QA framework, this will also drive the need to develop an NQF. http://www.aunsec.org/aseanqaadbproject.php

14 Myanmar has 135 recognised ethnic groups and 7 ethnic states that have a majority of ethnic residents.

15 The Census (published in 2014) shows the break down of people whose highest education attainment is post secondary education by state, but not by ethnic group. In any case the percentage of those having completed tertiary education in ethnic states is lower than the national average of 9%. P.56 Census Education report.

16 And who are therefore disadvantaged for life as they will have done less well on the school matriculation examination that to date is the entrance exam for all universities.

17 The ethnic breakdown figures in and outside the ethnic states collected in the 2014 census remain unpublished.

18 Bamar (Burman) are the dominant ethnic group.