The Student Union Associations at Myanmar Universities
Thura described on a recent episode how he co-founded Spring University Myanmar (SUM) with the goal of sustaining education amid Myanmar's political crisis and supporting the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) teachers who had lost their livelihoods due to the coup. SUM implemented innovative programs like micro-credential courses in subjects from engineering to ethnic languages, establishing a curriculum that promotes cultural appreciation and bridges ethnic divides. Partnering with over 11 international universities, SUM's diploma programs gained recognition for credit transfer, enhancing accessibility to quality education despite severe obstacles. SUM also pioneered offline learning methods, including radio lectures and the SUM Box—a portable WiFi device that shares learning content without internet connectivity—ensuring educational continuity in remote conflict-affected areas. In the following passage, he describes Myanmar’s history of university activism.
“Up until 2020, we had one of the most vibrant university campuses across the country and our students were well-exposed and well-connected through all these student activities on campus.”
I had to balance my needs as a university student to enjoy my college life while trying to do all these politically motivated works during the transition period. I think this is very common among those who grew up in Myanmar in the early 2000s. One funny story, as I was growing up, the only access to information on our government was through government newspapers, where they only showed the activities that the military generals were doing at that time. They would go around building bridges and dams ostensibly, trying to take care of the country in order to develop the country. And that was, for a long time, the only actual information that I had. But then, during my mid-teens and late teenage years, that façade of the military government actually started to unravel right in front of me. That was when I started to notice all the human rights atrocities they were responsible of and all the injustices that the military government has done over the past years in Myanmar. Coincidently, the revelation I had in teens matched the time of my exposure to the Students Union, which influenced the overall college life that I had.
Historically, since the British times, students’ unions in Myanmar have always been a very influential figure in the political landscape. That is very likely one of the reasons why, when the first military coup happened in 1962, one of the first activities they did was to bomb and destroy the Students’ Union headquarters building in the University of Yangon. Many students were killed in that action. The attack was actually one of the very first encounters that the students’ unions had with the military regime which gradually led to the student protests around 1974, alongside U Thant funeral crisis (the UN Secretary General). Even though the students’ union activities were outlawed after the 1962 coup, there have always been active students’ union personnel. Again, in 1988, they were at the forefront of the Myanmar revolution. This was due to their ability to mobilize the larger general public including their family members, industrial workers, civil servants, and citizens from all other aspects and other walks of life. Through the mobilization of citizens nationwide, the students’ unions started calling for democracy and the end of authoritarian regime in Myanmar. That was when it started out.
When I first joined university, we actually had to re-establish the Students’ Union because there were no one before us in the campus at that time. We were the first batch of students that the university welcomed after 15 years of closure. All the engineering universities had six-year program, which is common in Myanmar. The long period for course completion actually gave us ample time to really get to know each other, to really get things done, grow things and nurture things. As the oldest cohort of students, we had two clear goals. Since we looked up to the members of student’ union before us, we really wanted to be a part of this larger legacy of students’ union, resisting unlawful regimes historically. In addition, we also shared a strong motivation to re-vitalize the campus. On the one side, our approaches were very political and we were properly involved with the national reforms that was happening at that time such as the national ceasefire agreement, education reforms and social reforms that USDP government was trying to do. The other side of our goals was to create a university student life where students compete and innovate. How can we ensure that, we can compete with students not just from across Myanmar, but with our peers from Southeast Asia? So that was our motivation and we tried to couple that.
There were a lot of advocacies that we were pushing, especially in university autonomy and higher education laws. The National Education law was enacted in 2014. That also sparked a new wave of student protests across the country. It was, I think, one of the most sensitive time for the USDP regime because that student demonstrations were massive. They were actually trying to march from around the Mandalay area and all the way to Yangon. However, they were stopped midway, around Pyay city, by the military and it was actually a brutal crackdown. At the time, we were involved with that political debate of the National Education law, and the ongoing political reforms, while also focusing an equal amount of time and energy on campus activities. When we were not being directly political, we were encouraging students to restart playing with any interests they might have. So, there were students doing the English club, arts club, literature clubs, music, sports and other activities that are normal in other colleges and high schools in other countries. It was a very new concept, even a taboo, for us to reach out and do these recreational and communal activities. Before all this, university students in Myanmar simply just came for classes, after commuting for hours to arrive at the university campuses that are far away from where they live. Once the classes are done, they will just go back straight to their homes because it will take another two hours to get back. Therefore, when we started the students’ union, we had to approach students by asking them not to go back home right away after classes and instead, spend more time on the campus with other students to participate in social activities. Having a university campus life together to improve ourselves so that we can be part of the larger reforms that are already happening across the country. So that's how it came about.
I'm actually quite proud of how successful our goals were. We actually got a specifically allocated time in the entire afternoon, reserved for just the student activities. We started to negotiate with the university administrators and got our own venues like the students’ union office, the tennis court, the basketball court, etc. There were also very generous donors from the alumni. By the end, up until the 2020 COVID, I think we had one of the most vibrant university campuses across the country and our students have been well-exposed and well-connected through all these student activities on campus.