AS Myanmar Maritime University (MMU) held a convocation ceremony for its first batch of graduates on Sunday, students were singing the praises of the five-year-old institution and the high reputation it has already earned abroad.

Ko Nyein Zaw Tun, who was among the first students accepted into the university when it opened in 2002, finished the five-year program earlier this year and was immediately recruited as a management trainee in the Graduate Engineer Development Program run by J Ray McDermott Asia Pacific Pte Ltd in Singapore.

Although the program’s commitments meant that he was unable to make it back to Yangon for the graduation ceremony, he told The Myanmar Times via email how much he appreciated the faculty and coursework at MMU, where he studied Naval Architecture.

“In competing with other countries, the international image of MMU has been a source of great support for graduating students. We give credit to our lecturers who focus on giving the students a quality education,” said Ko Nyein Zaw Tun.
MMU rector U Thein Tun said the university aims to be an international-standard institution.

“Everyone who comes to the university is surprised by its quality. We can provide a practical education using high-tech equipment,” he said.

Pro-rector U Charlie Than said the establishment of the university required plenty of hard work and persistence.

“We had to start with nothing. To use modern terminology, we had to create both the hardware and the software. We had to not only establish buildings and get furniture and teaching materials, but also draw up rules and regulations for the university,” he said.

Despite these difficulties, MMU was set up thanks to financial help from the government and hard work by the university founders, he said.

Five years on, the university has already cemented its high reputation among recruiters from the international shipping industry.

“When international shipping companies search for qualified technicians many of them prefer young graduates from Myanmar to those from other countries. Many of these companies keep a close eye on our university so it is our duty to produce as many qualified students as possible,” U Charlie Than said.

So far 19 shipping companies have signed memoranda of understanding with the university to send students overseas for the mandatory year of sea service required of all graduates.

In the past, students were required to complete three years of lectures and coursework at the MMU campus, spend the fourth year working at sea and then return to the university for the final year of coursework.

However, many students have found it difficult to readjust to academic life after a year of work, so the university has rescheduled the sea service for the fifth and final year starting in the 2007-2008 academic year.

U Charlie Than said that as many of the students from the university’s first intake in 2002 move on to further studies and employment in places like Singapore, Japan and South Korea, the matriculation scores required by new students to be accepted into MMU are rising every year as competition increases.

“Many students with high matriculation marks want to enter the university but unfortunately we can only accept a limited number,” he said.

There are now more than 2000 students studying at the university.