Burma’s universities open for business but still seeking academic autonomy

With the easing of international sanctions, UK universities are re-engaging with Burma at a time when the country’s higher education sector finds itself caught between two reviews.

It’s lunchtime, but in the offices of the National League for Democracy (NLD), no one is stopping work. As we go up a tight staircase into an office hung with portraits of leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her father General Aung San, activists work energetically around tables strewn with documents and maps. Student volunteers flick between drafting policy papers on antiquated PCs and checking Facebook on their iPhones.