Geography Department was set up in 1924. Geography Department aims to disseminate geographic knowledge among the public; to effectively assist with geographic knowledge in national development endeavours; and to enhance the collaborations in research and teaching with international universities and organizations.Currently, the department has a total of thirty- five staffs; thirty teaching staffs and five office staffs headed by the Professor. The academic staffs do both teaching and field researches as part of their academic duties. Two Professors, two Associate Professors, twenty-one lecturers, three Assistant lecturers and two tutors served for the Geography Department. The Geography Department offers courses leading to degrees of Master of Arts (MA), Master of Research (Mres), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Bachelor of Arts - Honours (BA Hons).
In addition, Geography Department introduced to offer Diploma in Geographic Information System (Dip. in GIS) in 1999 under the HRD Programme. Therequirements for attending Dip. in GIS course are:
- Must be a degree holder from a university, especially in Geosciences and Arts Science subjects, such as Geography, Geology, Zoology, Botany and Archeology
- University teaching staff are favorable
- All governmental employees, especially dealing with GIS and Remote Sensing (RS) are also eligible
The teaching staffs are also engaged in research programmes as follows;
- Tourism Geography (Cultural tourism, ecotourism, adventure, business, etc.)
- Application of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) in Development Studies.
In the international cooperation, a lifelong Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed between Geography Departments of Cologne University, Germany and University of Yangon in 26 August, 2003. Under this MoU, teaching staff exchange programme, as visiting professor and visiting lecturers, had been made between this two universities during 2005, 2006 and 2007. Many joint field excursions with German and Myanmar students to Bagan, Kalaw, Yangon were performed several times. Currently, Prof. Dr. Frauke Kraas is acting as a visiting professor for one and half year. Visiting Professor has given seminars and lecture series in Geography Department to upgrade the academic qualification of its staff and students. Besides, the Department of Geography had held international workshops in University of Yangon twice, in 2003 and 2005. Apart from hosting international workshops, many scholars from the Department had also attended international forum, seminar and workshop in abroad.
