TIRANA, July 22 – Albania’s parliament has approved a higher education law, which has been met with protests by public university staff and students, who say it favors private universities over public institutions and hurts the ability of poor students to attend university due to higher fees.
The government says the new law is needed to improve the quality of the education system in the country and the bill has gone through a long and inclusive consultation process.
“The new law guarantees competitiveness through a merit-based evaluation system,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said at a press conference this week. “It is important to note that the new legislation paves the way towards the European Albania after 20 years of degradation, delay, chaos, corruption and undeserved privileges for a caste, which is funded from the state budget.”
The parliament passed the bill with 78 votes for and none against, as the opposition lawmakers walked out in protest after a nine-hour debate that lasted into the early hours of Wednesday. Several lawmakers of the ruling parties had also expressed concern over the law but either voted for it or did not attend the voting session.
The head of the opposition Democratic Party, Lulzim Basha said the opposition will use other options to try to oppose the higher education law, asking the president to veto it and pursuing a case against the law at the Constitutional Court.
“We will launch a broad information and awareness campaign,” Basha told reporters, adding the new law “undermines quality and autonomy of higher education for the sole purpose to intervene in the academic life and put university professors under [government] control.”
Outside the parliament, a group of students protested, vowing to strike when the new school year starts, complaining that the new law raises tuition and fees.
Their professors have expressed concern over the fact the government funding for research would now be extended to private universities.
A group of public university professors harshly opposed the draft law, saying it openly favors the private university owners by giving them public funding, while placing research at public universities in jeopardy.
Artan Fuga, a professor and one of the leading opponents of the law said government-mandated “political commissars” would take over running public universities. He countered the government’s narrative for more autonomy in how public universities are run.
“The aims of the law are good, but the way they have been translated into the bill are bad,” he told reporters.
The government and the education ministry said the new law gives an end to the “pyramid scheme” of private universities serving as diploma mills by placing them under better government supervision and forcing public and private universities to compete on quality on equal footing.
Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha led the opposition in parliament, saying that the new law deprives the poorest 30 percent of the population from having a higher education.
Rama responded that the education pyramids raised by Berisha when he was in power had deprived Albanians from a qualified educational system, adding that the poor would be given subsidies to go to university.
“The law also ensures that young people, who wish to attend the university, will not be impeded by their families’ poverty, because it is the state that will support all the children of the poor to successfully attend the university, when they wish and are able to show their talent,” Rama said.
Rama added that the previous boom of private universities – about 18 of them were closed last year after failing to fulfill the legal requirements – had also deprived the country of a group of graduates in certain areas like teaching and had artificially increased the number of lawyers and economists, many of whom received sub-par education.
The opposition Democrats, the day before the parliamentary session, held a meeting with a group of public university professors to listen to their complaints.
The Democrats have promised to void the law if they come to power, a promise met with skepticism by some of the protesters against the law who see it as political opportunism and have told reporters they believe the Democrats are also in bed with the private university owners.
