University of Yangon

University of Yangon

‹See Tfd›ရန်ကုန် တက္ကသိုလ် IPA: [jàɰ̃ɡòʊɰ̃ tɛʔkəθò]
Seal of Yangon University
Former names	Rangoon College (1878) Government College (1906) University College (early 1920) Rangoon Arts and Sciences University (1964)
Motto	‹See Tfd›နတ္ထိ ဝိဇ္ဇာ သမံ မိတ္တံ (Pali: natthi vijjā samaṃ mittaṃ)[1][2][3]
Motto in English	There's no friend like wisdom.
Type	Public
Established	1878; 146 years ago (1878)
Rector	Dr. Tin Mg Tun
Academic staff	1313
Undergraduates	4194
Postgraduates	5748
Location	Kamayut 11041, Yangon , Yangon Region , Myanmar 16°49′48″N 96°08′06″E / 16.83000°N 96.13500°E / 16.83000; 96.13500
Campus	Urban
Affiliations	ASEAN University Network (AUN), ASAIHL
Website	uy.edu.mm

The University of Yangon (also Yangon University; Burmese: ရန်ကုန် တက္ကသိုလ်, pronounced [jàɰ̃ɡòʊɰ̃ tɛʔkəθò]; formerly Rangoon College, Rangoon University and Rangoon Arts and Sciences University), located in Kamayut, Yangon, is the oldest university in Myanmar's modern education system and the best known university in Myanmar. The university offers mainly undergraduate and postgraduate degrees (Bachelor's, Master's, Post-graduate Diploma, and Doctorate) programs in liberal arts, sciences and law. Full-time bachelor's degrees were not offered at the university's main campus after the student protests of 1996. The bachelor's degree was re-offered from 2014 on. Today degrees in Political Science are offered to undergraduate students, as well as postgraduate diplomas in areas such as social work and geology.

Initially most major universities in the country depended on Yangon University. Until 1958 when Mandalay University became an independent university, all institutions of higher education in Myanmar were under Yangon University. After the University Education Act of 1964, all professional colleges and institutes of the university such as the Institute of Medicine 1, Rangoon Institute of Technology and Yangon Institute of Economics became independent universities, leaving the Yangon University with liberal arts, sciences and law. In Myanmar, responsibility for higher education depends on various ministries. The University of Yangon depends from the Ministry of education.^[4]

Yangon University has been at the centre of civil discontent throughout its history. All three nationwide strikes against the British administration (1920, 1936 and 1938) began at Rangoon University. Leaders of the Burmese independence movement such as General Aung San, U Nu, Ne Win and U Thant are some of the notable alumni of the university. The tradition of student protest at the university continued in the post-colonial era—in 1962, 1974, 1988 and in 1996.^[5]