The International Center of Excellence at Yangon University (ICOE) was founded on 10 January 2013 in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.The ICOE as the primary center designated by the Myanmar government for post-graduate education in Lower Myanmar, the ICOE facilitates student and faculty development and collaborative research opportunities.
ICOE has an Advisory Board. Members of the Advisory Board are representatives from the Office of the President of Myanmar, the Ministry of Education and Yangon University; Professor Karl Jackson and Dr. Jae Ku of SAIS, Johns Hopkins University; professors from Chang Ang University; and leaders from Myanmar.
The Ministry of Education is in the process of refurbishing the Science Building on the Yangon University campus to house the ICOE. The ICOE building will serve as an incubator for other international inputs to higher education, offering under its own authority, office space and teaching facilities to incoming programs.
The ICOE will offer courses to current faculty and graduate students and to seek funding to send junior faculties abroad for training. Initial courses and workshops sponsored by the ICOE will concentrate on public policy and political economy as well as workshops in law, technology, and medicine.
In the spring of 2013, the International Center of Excellence at YU began course instruction in International Relations and Development. On January 21, 2013, a SAIS/Chung Ang University-organized and KOICA funded collaboration of American and Korean university professors been teaching a series of sixteen graduate level courses in “International Relations and Development Studies“ at Yangon University.
The ICOE will encourage joint research projects between visiting scholars and faculty and graduate students from selected departments of Yangon University as well as other universities affiliated with ICOE.
A sample of the courses to be taught over the next year include: International Relations; Principles of Economics; the Asian Growth Model; International Security, and Foreign Policy Analysis.
The ICOE is an open-architecture designed to attract different universities, private companies, foundations, and NGOs bound together only by the desire to increase the quality of higher education in Myanmar.
