Press conference by Prime Minister Edi Rama following the special cabinet meeting on the working document on the Pact for University, as well as the future work plan:
I wish you all Happy New Year! I also hope you had a nice Christmas.
The reason for holding this press conference is related to the cabinet meeting that just ended and it focused on the students, not only on their demands, but also on other aspects that have come to our attention as substantive elements of the Pact for the University we plane to make public hopefully by the middle of the next month.
However, during the cabinet meeting, we have not only discussed, but we have also made a number of significant decisions that address the students’ demands and include a larger scope beyond their demands, just like we have already stated and believe that it is imperative to maximize the potential generated by the student protest and ensure that the university ushers in a second transforming stage that should further deepen.
First, we have already adopted four Council of Ministers decisions regarding the first student demand:
– On determining the category of individuals who meet the eligibility criteria for Master’s (2nd cycle) degree programme in the public higher education institutions, who will benefit annual tuition fee cut;
– On several amendments to the Council of Ministers Decision No. 903, dated 21.12.2016 “On determining the criteria for providing scholarship support for excellent students who achieved high grades in the secondary and tertiary education; to support the students enrolled in study programmes designated as priority areas and students from disadvantaged social groups,” as amended;
– On amendments to the Council of Ministers Decision No. 288, dated 21.5.2018 “On setting the maximum annual tuition fee ratio for the students attending public higher education institutions for first cycle study programmes, as well as for integrated and full-time professional programmes,” as amended;
– On amendments to the Council of Ministers Decision No. 269, dated 29.3.2017 “On determining the categories of individuals who fulfil the admission criteria to a first cycle study programme, to an integrated study programme or in a professional studies programme exempted from the annual tuition fee,” as amended.
The four Council of Ministers decisions regarding the first student demand are explained as following:
Students from families benefiting economic assistance, as well as persons with disabilities, blind people, paraplegic and tetraplegic persons benefit a 100% coverage of the tuition fee.
Students from families receiving economic assistance, blind people, paraplegic and tetraplegic persons will benefit a scholarship of 10.000 ALL per month.
I would like to highlight the fact that decision to subsidize 100% of the tuition fee was an existing one, but such a subsidy will be directly provided by the central government to the students meeting these criteria following the noticeable deviations by the local government authorities.
Students of every degree programme with grade point average over 9 will benefit a 100% coverage towards the tuition fee from the full fee rate they used to pay prior to this decision.
Likewise, students of every degree programme with the grade point average over 9 benefit a scholarship of 10.000 ALL a month, while this amount was estimated 8,100 ALL per month and it was granted to students with grade point average 10 only. This significantly expands the scope and the government direct support for the best performing students.
We will provide equal opportunities to every other student who will benefit a 50 percent cut of the university enrolment fee and who paid full fee rate prior to this decision. This means that every current student, including the poor performing students, will not pay any fee and the state budget will pay instead for the rest of this academic year.
Meanwhile, in the next academic year, every student failing to score a grade point average 6 will lose this state budget support.
With regards to the Master’s (2nd cycle) degree programme, the government will pay the fee for the students with a grade point average over 9 upon admission; students coming from families receiving economic assistance as well as the blind students, paraplegic and tetraplegic people, orphans, children of police officers who have died in the line of duty and every other social vulnerable groups defined under this decision will benefit a funding of up to 50 % of the tuition fee.
Following are the Council of Ministers decisions regarding the education fees.
Of course, the decision enters into force immediately, meaning that the government will cover all financial cost stemming from these decisions starting from January.
The other side of the demand is related to the student dormitory system. As many as 8 student accommodation companies operate currently, namely three in Tirana, and five others in the universities of Vlora, Shkoder, Elbasan, Gjirokaster and Korça.
They receive budget support from the government, but these entities also need to undergo a deep reform, work on which is already underway. Worth mentioning is the fact that the budget’s normative act allocates an additional funding of three million dollars to support investment projects to upgrade the student dormitories. Likewise, a second project with an estimated value of 27 million euro is being negotiated, namely a grant of 7 million euro provided by the German government and a loan of 20 million euro, adding up to the project’s initial phase implementation of which is already underway.
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) has also launched work in the Students City and will be part of the project designed to rehabilitate student dormitory buildings. Talks are also already underway with other international agencies and all student dormitories across the Republic of Albania will be rehabilitated for sure.
With regards to the second student demand, calling for the Ministry of Education and the Higher Education Institutions’ transparency and online disclosure of all spending
The present situation is that the higher education institutions enjoy the right to:
– Establish internal financial regulations and rules, distribution and use of revenues according to the activity and the institution’s needs;
– Set the tuition fee rates in accordance with this law;
– To independently draft their own budget, starting from each department and faculty level and the budget is then consolidated at the Higher Education Institution level.
The budget is initially endorsed by the Academic Senate and the drat is then forwarded for approval to the University Administrative Board.
Sadly, students and a large part of the academic staff are provided limited budget information, either in regards to the drafting and approval of the budget, as well as on spending. This is because the higher education institutions that enjoy the autonomy and the obligation to provide such information have failed to respect the Higher Education Law.
To ensure financial transparency of the public higher education institutions, we decided today to create the transparency portal.
The Portal will be accessible to all and online information that will be disclosed on it includes:
Detailed data on revenue and financial spending of each higher education institution;
Starting from the 2019 budget year, the administrative board of the Higher Education Institution, through the Administrator, should forward and disclose detailed data on income and spending expenses every three months as determined in this letter.
Medium-term budget data (MTBP), annual budget, state budget grants and other income, all operating expense, spending on scientific research and capital expenditures of any public institution of higher education;
Information on public procurement procedures or competition procedures of public and private partnership of every kind that universities are eligible to launch;
The decisions made by the Administrative Board, the Academic Senate and other decision-making and executive bodies.
The projected admission quota for each academic year;
Student exchange instruments and programmes and related procedures;
Research funding instruments and related procedures (public and specific scholarships for each university);
Two or more multilateral agreements at university level;
Data on scholarships and financial incentives provided to students;
CVs of university professors;
Results of scientific degree verification process;
Claims and complaints filing procedures and mechanisms concerning actions or inaction of the officials and executive bodies of higher education institutions, the procedure through which the interested individuals can present their opinions or influence in a way or another in the process of drafting laws, public policies or exercising the functions of the higher education institution should be part of this platform.
I believe this is an exhaustive approach to the transparency. Meanwhile, a relevant structure tasked with controlling the higher education transparency will be created to examine the complaints filed via the online transparency platform.
The deadline for completion: April 2019
The third demand put forward by students has to do with the share of the students’ vote.
To inform you about the present situation, I would say that the Higher Education Law regulates the student representation through four elements:
Participation in the Senate;
Participation in Elections;
Participation in Permanent Commissions;
Student councils.
The Law recognizes the students’ rights to be represented in every permanent commission. Permanent commissions are collegial bodies, operating at university and faculty level. They perform functions in areas defined in the statute, mainly related to the entire range of the university activities.
It is clear the student council and permanent commissions are inexistent to a large extent. The Higher Education Law clearly stipulates the rights and obligations of the higher education institutions. It is the university autonomy that has been unfortunately seen as freedom without any responsibility, while autonomy means responsibility with the needed freedom to exercise it.
Such institutions are designed to be the nearest and most frequent meeting point for the students’ problems. The lack of these institutions has stirred a feeling of underrepresentation.
What we decided today:
To address this issue, I have signed the Prime Minister’s directive on establishment of the inter-institutional working team tasked with drafting the status of the public institutions of the higher education. The status will facilitate work of the higher education institutions to adopt their own statuses, marking then the start of the process to fill the existing gaps.
Completion of the status process at the public higher education institutions.
Provision of legal assistance if needed, launch of election process for the Student Councils, monitoring the Permanent Commission and the students’ representation in these bodies in line with the status. All these measures fully address the need from which stems a demand we find in no university around the globe regarding the way it has been worded.
The fourth student demand call for the review of academic degrees and verification of doctoral plagiarism and textbooks.
The verification process of the legal criteria for every higher education institution has found shocking surprises; Failure to respect the standard stipulating one supervisor for no more than 5 doctorate students as one supervisor has had an average of 15 doctorate students, even one supervisor for 41 doctorate students in one case; failure to respect the duration of at least 3 academic years for the doctoral studies to be finalized with the scientific degree of ‘Doctor’. The Albanian Studies Academy has awarded doctoral degrees during a duration of three months only.
What we decided?
Regarding this issue, the Council of Ministers adopted the decision on the anti-plagiarism control over dissertations and the academic degrees. The Council of Ministers also passed the draft law on the code of conducts for integrity in scientific research in the Republic of Albania to become subject to public consultation. It is a bill we believe will precisely address a set of complex problems and will allow everyone to join and participate in the public consultations to give the legislation a final form and make it the basis for a process to create a digital archive of all doctoral studies in the Republic of Albania at the relevant Education Ministry.
Higher Education Institutions as well as any other state institution keeping original copies of dissertations should submit to the relevant Ministry of Education the copies equivalent to the original and the material electronically within 60 days after this decision enters into force.
The Ministry of Education should conduct the digital antiplagiarism verification through an automatic verification software program or other programs and equipment. As soon as the automatic verification yields its results, the Ministry of Education will forward the antiplagiarism verification results on the basis of which a revaluation on the academic degrees obtained via alleged non-academic practices will take place.
So, what the government and the Ministry of Education will do through its mechanisms is just the mechanical process, and the academic judgment, just like in any normal country and according to our university law, will rest on the higher education institutions.
The higher education institution, within 90 days from making the antiplagiarism verification findings available, should inform the relevant Ministry of Education about the final revaluation decision about every reviewed academic degree.
The Code of Conduct for Research Integrity in the Republic of Albania, hereinafter called the Code of Ethics, contains the basic principles and norms of the conduct of higher education institutions and their academic or research staff in compliance with the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.The purpose of the Code of Ethics is to serve as a framework for self-regulation and it holds legal, institutional, professional, moral and social responsibilities for the institutions and members of the academic and scientific communities.
The fifth demand has to do with the University Administrative Board:
The present situation is that the administrative boards are composed of seven part-time members. The members, the higher education institution representatives are elected by the Academic Senate, whereas the government representatives are picked by the Ministry of Education.
The problem is that the administrative boards have kept a low public profile and their role has not been well understood by the university and the public alike.
The written truth is that the Administrative Boards have improved the financial management of the higher education institutions, but they have failed to go further on to improve the public perception and students have rightfully voiced their concerns as boards should somehow be guarantors of all process and the transparency over the university spending.
What we decided today?
We passed a Council of Ministers decision on determining criteria and procedures for selecting the Administrative Board members in the public institutions of higher education representing the Ministry of Education.
All current administrative board members are “de facto” discharged, while they will continue to keep their positions until they are replaced as decision-making emergencies may show up and it would be senseless should the administrative boards are not operational.
The new nominations to the Administrative Boards will take place through an open process under the public attention and in front of the eyes of every interested individual or groups and one of the government representatives will be proposed by students on the condition that the proposed member is a public figure, expert and professional as stipulated by law. Through their mechanisms, students are entitled to propose not less than three candidates and one of them will represent the government in the administrative board as an expression of readiness and cooperation with students.
Students should now well that senates will be legally free to propose one of the student members in the senate or heads of Student Councils to fill the positions they hold in the Administrative Boards.
Should this be stipulated in the University Statute, their representation is definitely settled.
The deadline for completion: April-May 2019.
The sixth demand put forward by students is about providing the student card:
The situation is obvious. Albania has no tradition of providing favourable services to students. It has always been an ambition and a legendary promise by all.
To this end, since February 2018 onward, we have launched a process together with the European Commission over this issue, because we think that inclusion of Albanian students in the European Student Card is what will render serious substance to the card.
Let’s be realistic. It is not the lack of the student card the one to prevent students from going to the theatre, or to a library or a museum.
In November 2018, we have concluded a bilateral agreement with the equivalent institution of the Educational Services Center in France and we are working to include Albania in the European Student Cards network of countries.
However, the process implementation process has taken a long time as it requires involvement of local, central and private business institutions, but the solution is that the Ministry of Education discloses the signed agreement and the list of services students are entitled to benefit from state entities, local government and the private entities.
A technical guide on how to apply and other technical related issues is being drafted and two other Council of Ministers decisions will be made within January 2019.
The deadline is the end of 2019.
The seventh demand on the university libraries in line with the European standards:
The have also demanded creation of an online library in the Albanian language.
Today we passed the Council of Ministers decision on establishment of a commission tasked with the identification of the international academic literature that will be translated into Albanian.
We now wherein lie the problem of this serious and real student concern over the books and our ambition is to launch a process aimed at improving the academic titles in the higher education institutions and further extend what we have already started with the pre-university education system to provide Oxford, Cambridge textbooks, a practice that will soon extend to higher education institutions, making a huge leap towards improvement of the academic titles.
The digital library will become operational by March and it will be accessible to every student and academic personnel all over the country.
Meanwhile, I want to announce today and tell students that they should expect a very clear decision on English language. English will be one of the conditions that will define a lot of aspects of your relations with the state, the university and diploma because we can no longer exclude foreign languages from the university education and in the meantime stage protests to demand for Albanian online scientific libraries.
However, this will take place a year later, because – as we have also previously confirmed – we are working to ensure free English language courses to every student. We will provide English language courses for free at every university.
The eighth student demand has to do with the teaching and research performance evaluation, online disclosure of researches etc.
The truth is that a new standard has been set in the Albanian higher education system. All universities have been internationally accredited by the Quality Assurance Agency, a UK-based international leading independent agency. However, as the accreditation report noted, several institutions of the higher education failed to show due seriousness during the accreditation process due to internal conflicts among the executive bodies, as well as a result of the lack of institutional culture from the authorities of the higher education institutions in reporting their activity.
We decided today to immediately set up the working group to amend the Council of Ministers decision on the Higher Education Quality Code to ensure that the legislation addresses many of the concerns expressed by the students, which means that the behaviour and approach to students should be a widely accepted and supported approach by students. Whoever fails to abide to this approach he violates the law.
The Council of Ministers also adopted today the decision on evaluation of teaching performance of the academic personnel of the higher education institutions through the National Student Survey renowned international practice of the National Student Survey.
Application of the student control and evaluation instrument will assess the teaching and research performance of the academic personnel through the National Student Survey will start in a near future.
These are the eight demands put forward by students, but our approach to the university problems doesn’t end here and thanks to the already launched dialogue many other issues have added up.
Indeed, or package for the university will be a Package 8+.
I wish and remain fully confident that dialogue will continue, while the strategic document of the Pact for the University will be made available to every student in order to read, evaluate and contribute so that a final document, a great understanding agreement and commitments between the government and the students is ultimately reached.
We decided today to make available to best performing students all vacant job positions in the public administration.
It is a Council of Ministers decision on employment of the best performing students in the state institutions that are part of the public civil service.
Excellent students face today a major hurdle in their employment efforts as they are told they lack due working experience anytime they apply for a job position.
And the question is: “How am I supposed to gain working experience without working?
Of course, the law has been drafted with the assistance of the European Union and it is in line with the European standards.
To overcome this impasse and convey a clear message to everyone, as well as to contain through a single move the mounting wave of defamatory remarks from the opposition, we will announce all free job positions in the public administration that will be filled by best performing students without sitting a test first, but in a merit-based system. The better performing students, the ones who have failed to find a job, those who are currently abroad and say they left the country because they were not given the opportunity to take up government jobs, those who will soon graduate will be now provided the opportunity to choose the job position through a merit-based system.
For example: The Ministry of Finance announces 20 vacancies available to best finance faculty students. The most excelling student will be entitled to make the first choice. He can either take up or turn down the job. Once he or she agrees to take the job than this vacant position is filled. The second one may turn down the offer the job position will be available to the next student on the list according to the performance.
The system takes some work and time, but I think the entire system will be ready within the first half of the next year according to this priority order. The excellent students who are graduated from international universities are entitled to choose first; the excellent students graduated from our public universities will be second to make their choice; while the others who are graduated from private universities will rank third.
Meanwhile, work is underway about another important Council of Ministers decision on the vacancies in the government agencies that are not part of the public administration, the immovable property registration offices, and the agency for legalization of informal buildings. All vacancies in the non-public administration will be available to best performing students. The vacancies will be announced publicly. These job positions will be observable, just like it is already the case for the vacancies in the education system, healthcare system and these all will be individual choices depending on what every student has been doing while sitting in the university classes and nothing and nobody else, as no cabinet members, directors, professors, relatives, wealthy people will be able to influence this system, because the system will be open, transparent and public.
I know this is something no other country has ever applied. I know such a move is almost questionably in terms of legitimacy, but we are determined to press ahead with it, because one of the best things of this protest is that we can break out some frames, overcome some boundaries and above all, together with the best performing students we can make history, by dealing a final blow to “the dinosaur” of the public administration that was born and has been fed by the political parties.
The next issue has to do with the Tirana’s university campus:
A directive has been signed to set up a working team to move this process forward after being stalled primarily due to the property rights related issues and the lack of due funding.
You already know the property-related issues. Those who were rejected by students to join their protest, they own refectories, cafeterias, bars and student dormitories and can even stage lottery games in reading rooms at student dormitories.
Likewise, we are working on a decision-making process I believe it is crucially important and will mark a very positive development; the framework agreements between the relevant ministries with the university departments and faculties to support scientific research. Each ministry will sign a framework agreement with the universities and the ministries will provide funding to support university research projects. Various universities will be hired under these framework agreements to provide expertise, consultancy to help them gain access to the market. The universities still work according to a mix communist-socialist state mentality with the state budget and the taxpayers’ money available to them, while the market, which should be the university’s main revenue source, is inexistent. We will intervene to help the universities gain access to the market and create funding mechanisms.
The ministries too will commit to helping the universities to increase and expand the range of practice programs, internship and student employment programs.
Item 12
Discussions are underway to set up a solidarity fund, which will be a social responsibility fund with the contribution of all private companies that have been awarded contracts with the government.
Example: A mining contract will include a clause that the company should provide a certain contribution to the Mining and Geology Faculty.
A percentage of contribution that might have been traditionally used for corrupt practices now will be allocated to the university.
This is more or less what I wanted to say and I am now available to answer any questions about this topic.
Reporter: Is there any calculation on the estimated budget funding for this 12-point package? And do you plan any changes to the 2019 state budget to support this package?
During meetings with students at various faculties, you have repeatedly stated that no such decisions were to be made unless a process of dialogue was to be launched. Why did you make such decisions precisely now?
PM Rama: Because the dialogue is already underway. The student demands are already being discussed not only during the meetings I am holding, but also via the online platform “The Albania we want”, with many rather confidential than public contributions being made via the platform, but which are being taken into consideration. Also because, after all, we know quite well the things we should do and we will explain them all step by step and other issues that still take longer time to materialize.
With regards to the impact on the budget, I would say that no budget changes are needed. The Council of Ministers decisions have been already made and the due funding has been provided and every other-related cost is already projected. There is no need to amend the state budget. Those who call for the budget change are the ones who are not aware of what they are calling for, or more precisely say, the want the students to have no idea about what they are demanding. But I know quite well what the students are asking for and what I seeking to do in this process. Of course, everything has been well calculated to the last penny.
Reporter: To further elaborate on my colleague’s question, is the funding that will be used to subsidize the students’ tuition fees taken from other ministries or the Ministry of Education?
Do you have a back-up plan should the students go on protesting?
PM Rama: There is no need for budget changes. The Council of Ministers decision is based on the budget law and the funding has been already ensured. Starting from January, students will not go to pay the part the government should pay. The government will directly pay all universities and this case is closed.
As to the Plan B, my plan is quite clear. I will be heading the student protest. You might laugh, but you will soon see that I will “capture” the protest too, just like I have “captured” everything else and students have put forward reasonable demands, but this operation should go much deeper and the reform should go much deeper too. We have an absolutely undisputable basis, that is the Higher Education Law, yet we need to closely cooperate in order to implement this law and provide more room for the ambitions and hopes of all girls and boys who enter the university to study as not everyone enters the university to study, but instead spend some more years before finding themselves on the road of life without knowing what to do.
At the same time, we will soon outline the plan for the significant growth of vocational education colleges each year and cut the number of those attending the university. It’s a number out of any kind of logic and out of any sort of reason. We do not need, I believe, for 300 journalism graduates a year, for example. Where will they be hired?
I can bring a lot more examples. Do you know that more than 10 000 people have been graduated in law?! Where are these 10 000 going to work?!
A significant number of them could have become top professionals instead. We are not talking about high vocational education schools, but two-year vocational colleges, just like anywhere else around the world.
But, during the first stage, we should press ahead with the fulfilment of the eight student demands.
Reporter: You said that state budget will not grow. So it means that the students’ demand to grow the education budget to 5% of the GDP won’t be met? You are also saying that the Higher Education Law will remain in place?
PM Rama: There is no reason to touch the Higher Education Law. None of the participants in either public or non-public meetings has ever provided a single fact to show that the Higher Education Law has hampered this or that positive development to date. Quite the contrary, I have found that many problems that should be addressed are projected in the law.
We have a gap to fill and it is a gap from the law to legality. The same is the case to say that as long as no brave Albanian put the car’s seatbelt on, the law didn’t work and therefore we had to draft and adopt another law, or adopt another safety system. It is not the law but the legality. Therefore, the Higher Education Law will remain in place.
I have also something to tell to the university professors who collect signatures to revoke the Higher Education Law. It is important to distinguish among the professors. There are university professors who, without any exaggeration, are true heroes. But there are others too who speculate as if they are “do things on behalf of the people.” Before asking for the revocation of the law they should better check whether they fully comply with the law in terms of their academic degree they hold. The law doesn’t hamper a screening of this. That’s why the higher education law will remain in place. Everyone is right to question a law, but the higher education law is a result of the will of a governing majority that has been voted by the Albanian people and no minority can impose its will.
With regards to the demand for the education budget increase to 5% of GDP, I didn’t dwell upon this demand and focused on the Pact for the University instead. This issue has been also explained in full by the arguments and the Albanians’ contribution towards the education budget will keep growing and it will be explained in full how, when and why this is actually impossible for now. I didn’t announce it here, because we have no answer on this.
Thank you very much everyone! As usually, I believe we will hold another New Year eve meeting and I hope these decisions will convey the true and right message to all of those who took to protest with their own selves and the university in their hearts and minds. Whereas the rest will be told everything when the time comes because I am convinced they won’t give up protesting.
