page_title: University of Yangon
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: University of Yangon / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Convocation Hall, University of Yangon
context_page_description: The University of Yangon, 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 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, to the best students in the country. 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.
context_section_description: Established in 1878 as an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta, the Rangoon College was operated and managed by the Education Syndicate set up by the British colonial administration. The college was renamed Government College in 1904, and University College in 1920. Rangoon University was founded in 1920, when University College (Rangoon College - secular) and Judson College (Baptist-affiliated) were merged by the University of Rangoon Act. The American Baptist Mission decided to recognize Judson College (formerly Baptist College) as a separate institution within Rangoon University. Rangoon University modelled itself after University of Cambridge and University of Oxford. All subsequent institutions of higher learning founded by the British were placed under Rangoon University's administration: Mandalay College in Mandalay in 1925, Teachers Training College and Medical College in Yangon in 1930, and Agriculture College in Mandalay in 1938.
  Although it was attended only by the elites of the day, the university was at the centre of the anti-colonial movement. Students protested against the British government's control of the University and the Rangoon Act which placed the governor as chancellor of the University of Rangoon. All three nationwide strikes against the British colonial government (1920, 1936 and 1938) began at the university. Myanmar National Day  in fact commemorates the rebellion of Burmese students at Rangoon University in 1920. By the 1930s the university was the hotbed of Burmese nationalism, producing a number of future senior Burmese politicians, including General Aung San, U Nu, Ba Maw, Kyaw Nyein, Ba Swe, U Thant and Thein Pe Myint.
  Rangoon University became one of the most prestigious universities in Southeast Asia and one of the top universities in Asia, attracting students from across the region. The Japanese occupied the University during the Second World War, but it recovered and flourished after Burma gained independence in 1948. This golden period ended in 1962.
  After the military coup of 1962 under General Ne Win, and under the Burmese Way to Socialism, Rangoon University was put directly under the control of the Directorate of Higher Education, a central government agency, whereas previously it was run by a council of professors, scholars and government officials. In addition, the medium of instruction was changed to Burmese, a radical departure from English, which had been the University's medium of instruction since its founding. Educational standards began to decline markedly, and international bodies ceased to recognize degrees issued or obtained at the University. The university was also renamed the Rangoon Arts and Sciences University (abbreviated RASU), after certain departments and faculties (medicine, economics, education, etc.) were separated from the University in 1964.
  Rangoon University students staged a peaceful demonstration and protest on campus against 'unjust university rules' on 7 July 1962. Ne Win sent his troops to disperse the students. Dozens of students were killed and the historic Rangoon University Student Union (RUSU) was reduced to rubble the next morning.
  In November 1974 the former UN Secretary General U Thant died, and on the day of his funeral on 5 December 1974, Rangoon University students snatched his coffin on display at the Kyaikkasan Race Course, and erected a makeshift mausoleum on the grounds of the RUSU in protest against the government for not honouring their famous countryman with a state funeral. The military stormed the campus on 11 December killing some of the students, recovered the coffin, and buried U Thant at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda.
  Student protests against protest against General Ne Win's socialist government culminated in 1988. Student protest in March 1988 was met with a violent response from the government. This did not stop the protests. On 8 August 1988, students around the country came together to protest against the military regime. The protest was supported by hundreds of thousands of people who went into the stree
caption: The Convocation Hall is considered a main landmark of Yangon University.
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