TIRANA, Sept. 8 – Hundreds of recent high school graduates are protesting a newly-adopted admissions system for public universities seen by applicants as unfair and confusing.
Small protests have taken place in front of top state institutions, including the offices of government and parliament.
Angry applicants say they have been rejected from their preferred areas of study despite having high grade averages.
The protests came after the Ministry of Education published this week a preliminary list of admitted applicant winners. It sparked panic among many students and parents in Albania, because it showed many had not been able to get into their favourite programs.
Protesters say the new government policies will endanger their education prospects and future careers.
“Stop experimenting with us,” one protester yelled in front of the prime minister’s office.
Thousands of high school graduates failed to make it in the admitted list regardless of their excellent grades and advanced classes.
Students demanded the resignation of Minister of Education Lindita Nikolla and called for the return of the previous admission system.
On Tuesday evening, Minister Nikolla said that the lists are not final and that 24,000 out of 27,000 applicants will be admitted to university.
“Admission criteria were announced in February. Your concerns are legitimate. However, we have worked hard to remove political influence from education system. The new admission methodology is
transparent, merit-based and provides autonomy,” she said. “The final list will be published on Sept. 20. The reform is in your favor. Universities have announced the vacancies and quotas and the current schemes makes it possible for the best students to get selected first,” she added.
The opposition, however, accused the government of helping private universities with the move.
During Thursday’s parliamentary session, former Prime Minister and Democratic Party MP Sali Berisha said that the justice reform is penalizing thousands of graduates.
“Minister Nikolla must resign immediately, and the education reform must be done all over again,” Berisha said.
The newly-adopted admission methodology part of the education reform prioritizes excellent students who are granted the opportunity to win enrollment rights in many faculties at the same time.
Only after they make a final choice, the available vacancies will be granted to the next applicants in line.
Nevertheless, thousands of applicants were not included in the winners list because the Ministry of Education adopted some last minute changes for the calculation of application points for each graduate based on the available faculty.
The current enrollment system considers two criteria from prospective system: the high school GPA and admission tests (50 percent) and the grade point average of advanced subjects (50 percent).
Students argue that scrapping the pondered GPA from the old system drastically lowers their GPA.
Some of the advanced classes needed are also not available at all high schools, protesters said.
The admission scheme is part of a higher education reform approved last year which also allows private universities to benefit from public funds. The controversial reform also includes a hike in tuition fees and the introduction of student loans.
Currently there are about 11 public universities and 17 private universities in Albania.
