Summer Issue, 2012

The University of Hong Kong has been lending support to Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Myanmar for years, inside and outside the country. Since 2006, at least 20 students from Myanmar have enrolled in a variety of programmes at HKU, including Arts, Education, International and Public Affairs, Journalism and Media Studies, Law, Medicine and Social Work. Aung San Suu Kyi herself was awarded a degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by HKU earlier this year. Students and faculty members have worked with Myanmar refugees along the Thai-Myanmar border and visited five European countries this month. This programme of support has operated largely under the stewardship of Professor Ian Holliday, the former Dean of Social Sciences. Holliday says there is a “massive need” to build capacity at the universities inside Myanmar itself. “During the interwar period, Rangoon University (now Yangon University) was one of the most successful universities in Asia,” he says. Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, General Aung San, was once the editor of Rangoon University’s student newspaper. But following a pro-democracy student uprising in 1988, the quality and accessibility of tertiary education in the country decreased dramatically. As the country rebuilds its universities, Holliday says, HKU is ready to offer support. “The University of Hong Kong is an Asian leader, operating on an Asian canvas, with an Asian mandate.” In March, he and other representatives from HKU met with the deputy minister and the director of higher education in the Myanmar capital, along with the rectors of Yangon University and the Yangon University of To Myanmar yanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, is in the throes of a historic transition.The military has given up direct rule after more than a half century in power. Parliamentary elections have been held, and the long-imprisoned democracy campaigner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sworn in as a member of parliament. She visitedThailand in late May – the first time she has been allowed to travel abroad since 1988 – followed by a visit to several European countries, including Norway to collect the Nobel Peace Prize that was originally awarded to her in 1991. M Cover Story 2