For 5 days in a row, the staff of the Environment and Water Studies (EWS) department of the University of Yangon and a team of academics from the Netherlands, Sweden, Singapore, Japan and the U.S. met online to finalize the curriculum of the new Bachelor of Water Studies.
This curriculum design workshop, followed the first workshop in March 2020, during which the program objectives, design and curriculum were discussed with local and international stakeholders from government and industry.
Working across many time zones, the final 5-day workshop focused on in-depth development of the Bachelor curriculum to harmonize the contents and objectives of each syllabus which needs to be submitted to the Ministry of Education for accreditation.
Additionally, Gregor van Essen from The Water Agency introduced the “Living Lab” concept, aimed to provide teachers and students with a learning environment to acquire practical skills, within the context of an actual water project in Myanmar. The first Living Lab that will be developed together with UY is based on the Thaketa Climate Adaptation Project, which is jointly undertaken by public and private partners from Myanmar and the Netherlands.
The four-year BSc program in Water Studies will start with 50 students in the next academic year and at the same time, with 1-year full-time post-graduate diploma program which was supposed to be opened in June 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
