The junta released a decree on December 24, called 25/2007, that reforms the Selection Committee of Foreign Scholarship.

The new committee will be made up of the Minister of Education and18 high ranking government officials. The decree was signed by Col Thant Shin, whose title was given as “secretary of the government of Union of Burma.”

The new decree abolished previous decrees. It was only distributed among officials and the chairman’s office of the SPDC, according to reports.

Under the decree, no government staff member can be nominated by a foreign government for a scholarship program. Nominations must be made by the Burmese government.

All state scholarship students who study abroad must have approval of the government. A female student is prohibited to study abroad alone; she must be accompanied by at least one female student.

Military officials studying abroad must obtain permission of the Ministry of Defense.

For state scholarship programs, staff members must have worked in the government for at least two years. Students’ parents and spouses must be of Burmese nationality. Also, students who study abroad and return home may not leave the country again to study abroad for three years.

The decree also stipulates that state-sponsored students must serve in a government ministry after they return from a foreign country. If a student fails to return home, officials from the student’s government ministry who recommended them will be questioned and may be discharged.

Recipients of state scholarships who have returned to work in government ministries have found it difficult to quit their posts and have served for years, said a former scholarship student who is on the staff of the Military of Industry 1.

The evaluation committee will meet once every three months.

More than 3,000 state scholarship students, most of them from the military, are studying in Russia. The military government provides US $250 monthly per student, according to Burmese students in Moscow.