Supporting modernization, accessibility, and internationalization of environmental protection in Myanmar’s higher education sector Erasmus Project

Project Title

Supporting modernization, accessibility, and internationalization of environmental protection in Myanmar’s higher education sector

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Capacity Building in higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

In 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi wrote “a country’s international standard cannot be measured in terms of the number of hotels and bridges; it has to be measured in terms of education…a country of inferior education won’t be able to catch up with the world.”Unfortunately, 50 years of military rule has left Myanmar’s Higher Education sector neglected, isolated, underfunded and unsuited to meet the needs of a modern, democratic country. Within the science sector, Myanmar‘s university curriculum is currently unable to respond to national and global environmental challenges, such as natural resource management, climate change, pollution, habitat fragmentation, and biodiversity loss – challenges that impact on the functioning of ecosystems on which Myanmar depends for food, fresh water, health and protection from natural disasters.Therefore this project will assist with the modernization, accessibility and internationalisation of Myanmar’s higher education sector, with particular reference to environmental protection. It is a collaboration between three EU universities in Austria, Germany and Spain and four, geographically diverse, Myanmar universities. It will develop a new curriculum in English for the Masters programme in environmental protection; improve Myanmar teaching staff competences and technical and transversal skills; and use a range of outreach programmes and social media to promote equity of access to higher education, taking into account gender, ethnicity, and social mobility. It is a response to Myanmar’s newly enacted National Education Law (2014, 2015), which has made reform of the higher education a national priority and will assist Myanmar’s universities in their ongoing process of becoming autonomous. It will lead to a more attractive and relevant (to both sexes), demand-driven education, better training programmes, and a curriculum that is more closely aligned to opportunities for future employment.

Project Website

https://www.myanmar-edu.org/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 999698 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITAET FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN & Country: AT

Project Partners

• MAWLAMYINE UNIVERSITY
• MYEIK UNIVERSITY
• MYANMAR BIRD AND NATURE SOCIETY
• GEORG-AUGUST-UNIVERSITAT GOTTINGEN STIFTUNG OFFENTLICHEN RECHTS
• UNIVERSIDAD DE EXTREMADURA