One mantra of higher education in the new Myanmar is student-centred teaching and learning – and that’s terrific. But there are two distinct ways of placing students at the heart of the learning process and, from what I can see (which is no more than a very small fragment of the full system), Myanmar is currently adopting only one of them.

The first approach is to make students central to learning inside the classroom. No more teacher talk – at least not all the time. Instead, students become the focus of attention. After decades of very formal, traditional teaching characterized by deification of the professor, Myanmar’s classrooms are now starting to experiment with fresh ideas – chiefly through the use of student presentations in tutorials. There’s a lot more to do, but this is all to the good.

The second approach is to make students architects of their degree programmes. Clearly certain basics must be covered if graduates are to claim expertise in an academic discipline, and sometimes the necessary minimum will loom large – notably in professional programmes such as dentistry, law and medicine. Beyond that, a student-centred approach should aim to give students considerable choice through a broad range of majors and minors, and large sets of electives. For sure there will be resource constraints, but to the fullest extent possible students should have options. To date, I can see little movement in this direction on Myanmar’s campuses.

I’ve said it before (and doubtless I’ll say it again): MOOCs can be part of the solution. Making online courses available to students registered at universities across Myanmar, and thereby vastly expanding student choice, would be an ideal way to deliver more fully on the agenda of student-centred teaching and learning to which growing numbers of policy makers and educators are committed.