Mawlamyine University (also the University of Mawlamyine; ), located in Mawlamyine, is the largest university in Mon State, Myanmar. Being established in 1953, Mawlamyine University is the third oldest Arts and Science university in the country after Yangon University (est 1878) and Mandalay University (est 1925). The university offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in liberal arts and sciences. It is one of the few universities in the country to offer a specialization in marine science.

History

Foundation

The university was founded in 1953 as Moulmein Intermediate College under Rangoon University.

Selecting the site

The beautiful landscape and its environment was an ideal site for a college. The site of the college was located at about four miles away from the north east of the downtown section of Moulmein (Mawlamyine). When it was founded in the early 1950s, the size of the college was 417.87 acres. It was bounded by Moulmein-Taungwaing, main road and Moulmein-Amherst roads. On the east side of the site, there is a mountain called Taungwaing mountain, half a mile away from the college. About a quarter of a mile away from the college across the Moulmein-Taungwaing road, there was a former WWII airfield (now Mawlamyine Airport) used by the Royal Air Force and the American Flying Tigers. Before construction of the college, Taungwaing mountain and its surrounding areas had been a camping site for the British administrators and local elites and the gardens of local Chinese community during the colonial period in the 19th and early 20th centuries. According to Howard Malcom, an American traveler in 1836, early settlers of the Moulmein Chinese community made a living by growing vegetables and fruits in Taungwaing (hill-circle in Burmese, ling-ding in Chinese) and its surrounding areas.

Expansion

It was renamed Mawlamyaing Degree College in 1964. In 1977, the 2-year regional college system was introduced by the Burmese government, it had become Mawlamyine Regional College. On 15 December 1982, the technological department was separated from the college to form Government Technical Institute (now Mawlamyine Technological University). Eventually, Mawlamyine Regional College became an independent university in 1986.

Recent history

On 14 June 2018, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and youths from the Mon, Karen and Pa’oh ethnic groups held a conference at Mawlamyine University. The attendees included Union Ministers from the Cabinet of Myanmar, Mon State's Chief Minister, MPs and the local residents of Mawlamyine. The panel discussion was aired live on government television channels, the social media pages of the Myanmar State Counsellor's office, Office of the President of Myanmar and the Information Committee Office.

Academic profile

Entrance

University entrance to a particular undergraduate degree program derives from students' tenth grade standard examination marks. The Ministry of Education (Myanmar) runs the matriculation exams, which occur at the same time annually around country.

Programs

Classified as an Arts and Science university in the Burmese university education system, Mawlamyine University offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in common liberal arts and sciences disciplines. Its regular Bachelor of Arts (BA) and Bachelor of Science (BSc) take four years to complete and honors degree programs BA (Hons) and BSc (Hons) take five years. The law program also takes five years. Mawlamyine University pioneered the study of coastal and marine science in Myanmar. Mawlamyine University is one of few universities in Myanmar, offering a degree in Marine Science. Its Marine Science Laboratory in Setse, a coastal town about 83 km south of Mawlamyine was the first of its kind in Myanmar. As of July 2018, Mawlamyine University has 17 academic majors for full-time undergrad students.

Administration

Current

The current rector of the university is Dr. Htay Aung and the current pro-rector is Dr. Mi Mi Sein.

List of rectors (1953– present)

Facilities

Important Buildings

Student life

Accommodation

The university has limited number of residential accommodation options. Most of the on-campus accommodations were built in the 1950s. Following pro-democracy protest in 1988, on-campus accommodation was closed by the authority, and it was reopened only in 2013. The on-campus accommodation is operated by Mawlamyine University’s Students’ Affairs Department. Currently, there are five halls of residence in the campus; namely Thandar, Mawlamyine (Moulmein), Nilar (Sapphire), Pu-le (Pearl) and Shwe Myaing building. The average rent for students is 5000 kyat (approximately US$5) per month and a shared meal costs 500 kyat per meal. Nevertheless, students prefer to live in off-campus accommodation rather than on-campus accommodation.

Organisation

Numerous student organizations are registered in the university. Some are regional societies organised to promote fellowship among students from particular geographical areas. Others are identified with particular academic disciplines such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics known as course-related organizations, and still others belong to the special or interest groups. The most prominent organisations among them are Mawlamyine University Students' Union, Mawlamyine University's Literature and Culture Association (Burmese: မော်လမြိုင် တက္ကသိုလ် စာပေနှင့် ယဉ်ကျေးမှုအသင်း) and Mawlamyine University's Hiking and Mountaineering Association (Burmese: မော်လမြိုင် တက္ကသိုလ် ခြေလျင်နှင့်တောင်တက်အသင်း). Moreover, students from Mawlamyine University are entitled to join University Training Corp (Burmese: တက္ကသိုလ် လေ့ကျင့်ရေးတပ်(မော်လမြိုင်)) as an extracurricular activity for basic military training. Mawlamyine University is one of the four universities in Myanmar which have University Training Corp (UTC).

Media

Mawlamyine University's magazine, formerly known as Moulmein College's Mid-term magazine, is officially published annually. Dr. Khin Maung Nyo, a well known author and an alumnus of the university served as an editor for the magazine from 1977 to 1983.

International collaboration

Research

Teaching

Student and staff exchange

Notable former staff

Notable alumni