Title: Education as resistance : post-coup university students' educational choices in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar

Author: Phyu Hnin Thawda

Year: 2025

Keywords: epistemic resistance, capability deprivation, Myanmar higher education, educational credentialism, post-coup student agency

Themes: Education, Migration

Advisor(s): Carl Nigel Middleton

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: The 1st February 2021 military coup in Myanmar precipitated one of the most severe higher education crises in contemporary Southeast Asia. This thesis examines how post-coup university students in Yangon and Mandalay construct educational choices as an act of resistance, and how they sustain those choices amid tension between academic success and the precarity of professional development. Framed through three interlocking theoretical lenses in epistemic resistance and decoloniality, the capability deprivation approach, and the concept of revolutionary everyday life and contentious politics. The study compares the experiences of social science and medical science students, whose disciplinary contexts differently constrain the feasibility of alternative, non-state education. Employing a qualitative, phenomenological research design supplemented by comparative case analysis, the study draws on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with participants purposively across four groups, defined by discipline (medical/social science) and educational pathway (alternative provider/return to public university), alongside documentary analysis of policy and institutional sources. Findings in the thesis showed that how post-coup university students expressed “education as resistance” through participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement, made educational choices that shaped by four different interacting factors evaluating educational legitimacy and sustain their resistance to knowledge system under the military regime. The thesis contributes an empirically grounded account of student political agency under authoritarian rupture and offers policy recommendations to support alternative educational pathways and strengthen credential-recognition advocacy for Myanmar's displaced student population.

Title: Chinese students’ mothers in Thailand: transnational education and migration

Author: Shan Li

Year: 2025

Keywords: Transnational education, migration, Chinese mother, Thailand

Themes: Migration, Education, Social Welfare

Advisor(s): Premjai Vungsriphisal

The full thesis available here.

Abstract: This research focuses on Chinese mothers accompanying their children to study in Thailand, exploring their life experiences, identity transformation, and social adaptation within this transnational educational migration phenomenon. A mixed research method (questionnaire survey and interviews) was employed, systematically analyzing data from 151 questionnaires and 13 interviewed mothers. Results show that these accompanying mothers generally possess high levels of education and economic capability, with most abandoning their original professions for their children's education, forming a transnational family structure of husband remaining in China, wife accompanying her child in Thailand. While this model reinforces traditional gender roles, it also encourages women to demonstrate a certain degree of autonomy and re-creation in a cross-cultural environment. The study found that they face challenges such as language barriers, identity disparity, and psychological stress during the migration process, but they also achieve self-development and social integration through learning Thai, participating in the community, and engaging in side jobs. The findings not only enrich the theoretical discussion on transnational educational migration of East Asian women but also provide empirical references and policy implications for Thai-Chinese educational cooperation and family immigration policies