Gjergji K, has been working for two years as a police officer at one of Tirana’s police stations. He decided he would go for a degree in law. Two years ago he enrolled at one of the many private universities that have sprung up in Albania like mushrooms after the rain. “A law degree should set me up,” says Gjergji, “and open up opportunities to promote my career.” “Why should my son not have a degree in law?, “says Gjergji’s father. “We have decided to cut back on family expenses a little and come up with 3000 per year, and violଠGjergji will get his degree!” Like many other cases, for Gjergji to obtain a degree in law, it is merely a case of paying. It is very easy at private universities in Albania-you pay-you have a degree. What about doing some study? “My son does try so hard,” says Gjergji’s father,” but he is also very busy at his job as police officer..and at the end of the day are we not paying for this degree.?”
This case identifies in quite a frightening manner, a major problem; first of all in the education system in Albania, but also in the way society and the state function. It seems that the Albanians are flat out building an education system which is a pyramid system. During the last two months alone, the government has issued licenses for five more private universities, alongside at least 20 others that have opened their doors over the past three to four years. It is so ludicrous to see how private universities are set up on the floor space of two apartments. There is one such university which operates out of two flats on the tenth floor of a bloc of flats in Tirana. The students, staff and the residents of the apartments in this bloc all have to use the one lift. It is entirely out of the question that these universities provide the students with proper libraries, laboratories and other venues and the qualifications of their staff are also suspect. Almost everyone in this country wants to study law, or to have a degree in political sciences, international relations or philosophy- and these are the degrees which the private universities offer in abundance. The issues is to come up with the payment. Albania’s universities are probably amongst the rarest of their kind in the world; the owners of universities become professors and doctors; the owners are both owners and Deans of Universities. The way private universities are licensed and operate in Albania is the best way of killing any development in the non public sector of education. But the greatest damage these universities cause is linked to the education of a younger generation. If the pyramid schemes of 1996-97 blew the state and its institutions sky-high, ten years down the track, these universities risk blowing up the Albanian education system, if the state fails to impose rules and regulations, mechanisms to audit and check these universities. This ailment of private universities is not only exclusive to Albania. In Kosovo up until the end of the last academic year, 22 private universities operated there, while another bunch were awaiting licenses from the new government. What can be done with these pyramid-universities? The fonding and functioning of the private sector in the education system is certainly an alternative to the public sector. However, the licensing of a university is not the same as issuing a license for a cafe. Naturally there are rules, practices and outstanding experiences which are most useful. One such lessons can be learned from the Republic of Kosovo. The Government there hired the services of an international company to come and assess the quality of these universities and how they function. At th end of the monitoring process, the company recommended to the government of Kosovo that although these private universities issued beautifully embossed degrees, even more striking that the degrees of Oxford or Harvard Universities, their licenses should be suspended and they should be closed down.
Why don’t we follow suit in Albania? Why the hesitation? Currently a small number of private universities, New York University, the European University of Tirana, My Lady’s Good Council University, competes with the public universities, which are falling into disintegration on the inside and outside.
The problem of private education in Albania is not only a problem at university level, but also at secondary and primary level, where the number of private operators continues to rise, without any state structures or institutions monitoring the quality of their work and their performance.
