Europe encourages Albanian universities to do more

TIRANA, Oct. 24 – Representatives of the European Commission, the Albanian Ministry of Education and Science, academia as well as students gathered in Tirana to introduce and discuss the upcoming call for Tempus projects for 2010, and the novelties it brings.
The Tempus Programme, a trans-European mobility scheme for university studies, alongside Erasmus Mundus, also a cooperation and mobility programme for higher education, are instruments of the European Commission that aim at modernizing higher education beyond EU borders, thus aligning standards in this area to those within the Union.
The Tempus budget foreseen for Albania in 2010 is approximately 1 million Euro. The Programme finances two types of actions. First, it funds Joint Projects which are multilateral partnerships between higher education institutions in the EU and partner countries. Such projects typically develop, modernize and disseminate new curricula, teaching methods or materials, as well as the management and governance systems of higher education institutions. Second, Structural Measures are funded aiming at facilitating reform of higher education institutions and systems in partner countries so as to increase their convergence with EU developments. Through such measures, the EU concretely assists countries in the Western Balkans in raising their standards in their path towards EU membership. Owing to the Tempus Programme, there are currently 15 projects Albanian education institutions are involved in.
During the Tempus National Information Day held yesterday, participants discussed about their experiences and the benefits of the Tempus programme. Piia Heinamaki from the European Commission presented the upcoming Tempus call, focusing particularly on its novelties. Emphasizing the importance of Tempus for higher education reform in the country, Xheni Sinakoli of the EU Delegation to Albania, encouraged Albanian universities to take coordinating roles in Tempus projects and to aim more at Structural Measures projects which are beneficial to the education system as a whole rather than individual universities only. She ended by calling upon actors in Albania’s education sector and Albanian students “to take these opportunities and bring their knowledge and skills back to Albania to assist its development”.
Albania is also an eligible country for the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window for the Western Balkans, which provides another 8.5 million Euro to the region.