UM Director of International Programs Greet Provoost, center, meets with professors from Myanmar she mentored. They are:
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi’s director of international programs is playing a key role in the transformation of Myanmar’s higher education system as a new, more internationally collaborative government emerges following 50 years of military rule, which ended in 2011.
Greet Provoost recently returned from Yangon, Myanmar, where she participated in a convocation and workshop program as part of the New York-based Institute for International Education’s Myanmar Higher Education pilot program. After having mentored Nang Saing Moon Kham, a professor at the University of Computer Studies in Yangon, and Ei Ei Maw, a professor at the University of Pharmacy in Yangon, for 20 weeks, Provost met her mentees and visited with administrators and faculty at their universities.
The program is part of IIE’s Myanmar Higher Education Initiative created to help meet the changing country’s ambitious development goals, which includes rebuilding higher education. Some of Myanmar’s universities were shuttered during the turbulent times under military rule. IIE’s president and CEO, Allan Goodman, led a U.S. delegation to Myanmar in February 2013, which produced the idea for the 20-week course with university mentors.
“Myanmar, or Burma as we still know it, is one of the last vestiges in the world, like North Korea or Cuba, to which we have no or little access,” Provoost said. “Myanmar has had difficult governance issues and isolated itself from the world for the past five decades. So, it’s been fascinating to guide the faculty mentees in matters of internationalization, forge deep, cooperative relationships and be at the forefront of developing institutional collaborations there.”
The University of Pharmacy in Yangon and UM’s National Center for Natural Products Research recently identified areas of mutual interest for research collaboration. Myanmar is a hotbed for natural diversity, said Ikhlas Khan, NCNPR assistant director.
“The flora of this region, though used in traditional medicine, has not yet been fully investigated for medicinal purposes,” Khan said. “We envision that a collaboration with the University of Pharmacy (in) Yangon may create a mutually beneficial opportunity for both our institutions to bring science to traditional knowledge and practices.”
Provoost is among 35 international education professionals to serve as “virtual mentors” through IIE. The program includes 56 mentees from Myanmar, representing 32 universities and four government agencies. The course covers topics including the role of a university’s international office, facilitating academic and exchange collaborations, hosting foreign delegations, and developing institutional agreements. As part of the IIE course, mentors and mentees hold weekly exchanges to discuss strategies, ideas and experiences.
Moon Kham said the mentoring, which included case studies from Provoost’s work at UM, was invaluable.
“The inspiration and motivation (Provoost) provided is so effective and invaluable,” she said. “Greet’s ideas and advice will forever be encouraging to us. Her mentoring has given us the benefit of having learned theoretical and practical concepts, and real-life understanding of international relations in higher education.”
Maw seconded the sentiment. “Her advice was very valuable and helped me to consider the value and power of internationalization analytically and critically.”
Mentors such as Provoost gave Myanmar’s representatives confidence that they weren’t alone while they work to open up their universities to international collaboration, said Clare Banks, IIE’s assistant director of International Partnerships and IIE Initiatives.
“Greet was one of our top mentors and created a sense of warmth and equality with her mentees that forged friendships which will last well beyond this course,” Banks said. “Greet’s participation in the graduation ceremonies in person in Yangon was an extra special gesture for both her mentees and for us at IIE. People like her are a constant reminder of the remarkable individuals in our field. We are extremely grateful for Greet’s exceptional contributions to the Myanmar pilot course.”