Prime Minister Edi Rama’s remarks at launch of newest portal u-transparenca.al, a toolkit contributing to transparency and accountability in higher education institutions, part of the of the student demands, included in the Pact for the University:
Thank you very much for taking part in this meeting and proving this communication opportunity as we have actually taken another step forward to meet one of the student demands regarding transparency in the higher education institutions.
Back in 2005, the Ministers of Education of the EU member states unanimously adopted a European Council recommendation to draft a standard roadmap to ensure higher education quality in Europe. One of the main issues included in this recommendation was precisely creation of a periodic reporting mechanism on the activity, quality and finance of European Universities. These turned into systematically reported data published on specific portals, such as the European Transparency Platform, or the digital platforms developed by the universities themselves.
I believe you remember quite well that this 2005 recommendation to ensure quality in higher education system in Albania coincided with a boom in private universities, with the licensing of private higher education institutions and liberalization and loose policy in public university admissions and management. Since then, for almost a decade, nobody took the trouble even to think, let alone to act in developing a transparency mechanism as one of the main preconditions not simply to ensure higher education quality, but also to ensure a healthy interaction among all stakeholders and factors that breathe life into the university world.
In this case, we have made available a guarantee instrument that should be used by universities and monitored by the government within scope of the government competences, because this is not exactly within the government tasks, but it is a responsibility of the universities under the university autonomy. But I hope this instrument will be also monitored by all institutions regulating the university’s internal life, as well as by the students themselves.
The portal represents an opportunity to develop a set of very detailed data that will then collected in a single centre. It is not that the data have not existed to date, but they have been scattered in various sections and it has been impossible for an interested individual to check or be offered a single database in order to be informed. For the university’s decision-making bodies too, the portal is a pretty simple and worthy tool that eases decision-making process and provides any decision-makers the opportunity to be well-informed.
Likewise, I believe it is worthwhile that – of course the budget is the most delicate part of every organization and budget-based institution – the budget is published on all its elements and not just as an annual budget but also as a medium-term budget, thus providing the opportunity to have a broader insight into the current spending.
The portal’s data are also important as they are not dead statistics, but they provide valuable information over the universities’ activities and the active life of each student. In addition to statistical data on spending, or information on certain procurement procedures, the portal also contains detailed information and as such it can provide detailed information on student exchange programs, along with all relevant procedures, stock exchanges, various financial incentives. It will also provide information on bilateral or multilateral agreements of the higher education institution with other institutions based on certain quotas and on the new opportunities that will be created based on another aspect of the Pact we are working on in order to help the university gain access to the market and generate secondary income by primary making use of the government and various ministries needs for expertise, consultancy, researches and project studies, something we have already addressed by moving even further to create the proper conditions for the universities to found their own profitable enterprises.
Together with the Agricultural University of Tirana with which we have already established a win-win cooperation agreement for both the university and the government itself and we are exploring ways to build a profitable enterprise, which will manage the didactic farm that is set to be built under a EUR 1 million funding allocated by the government, namely the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as part of the recent interactions already underway with various universities.
The launch of the transparency portal is neither a goal in itself, nor the end of a mutual information and communication process. We are also seeking to ensure communication and interaction among individuals who are not presented in the decision-making bodies, the rectorates and deaneries, as well as the Ministry of Education and the government itself, which means that every individual will be provided the opportunity to express opinions, ideas and lodge complaints via this portal, which will be transparent and open to the university community and the students’ parents, as well as our institutions, namely the Ministry of Education.
I am very pleased to underline that a meeting with the cabinet members involved in the Pact for the University process affirmed earlier today the positive interaction with universities as we are working to identify all university needs and prepare projects for every university. This means we are almost ready to return to the universities, this time not with the small joint working teams that have been created and operating, but to the lecture halls to show what we have done together and inform about the next stage.
The idea is that by early autumn we are ready to draw up a concrete plan to provide funding for projects, advancing at the same time in the efforts to develop more projects. I will provide the example of the University of Arts, which, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, is drafting the project for the complete transformation and taking the grand hall to another new standard, because that hall is also a space of a value from the point of view of our cultural heritage. But also all the other chapters of a programme that will seek to address infrastructure problems, including heating systems, didactic tools and so on.
As I have said since when no one was listening and refusing to talk, this is a process we plan to make the largest investment in 30 years combined to transform the university infrastructure, laboratories and didactic tools. The collaborations between ministries and universities and relevant faculties, such as Geology, Culture or Construction Engineering, will create this synergy and will enable us to develop this massive funding program.
We diverted a large fiscal space planned for the construction of Thumane-Kashar, one of most complex and costly road infrastructure projects, into supporting the Pact for the University and the university infrastructure. The idea is to open a huge site to transform infrastructure of the country’s whole higher education system during the remaining two years of our second term in office.
In the meantime, we are working to improve the dormitory and student housing infrastructure and one thing is for sure, we will rebuild all dormitories and student housing facilities during this period, reaching much better standards than their existing standards prior the student protests to voice their concerns.
The last thing I want to highlight as an added value of the student protest – although it was not included on their demands list, but it was us to add it – is the students’ employment in the public administration. We started with employment of an initial group of 373 best performing students, who are now part of the public administration. The second call for applications and all vacancies in the public administration, as well as other institutions not included in the civil service, namely the Immovable Property Registration Office, ALUIZNI and other institutions, we be made available to the students and graduates with a grade point average 9 to 10. The student recruitment programme will further expand on the basis of a preferential ranking, giving priority to those graduated from foreign universities, the graduates in the country’s public universities and finally those graduated from private higher education institutions.
It is an already open and completely objective path. We have addressed every complaint forwarded to us. Indeed, it has been already proved that in no case – as portal is open and transparent to everyone – no job appointments are determined by a cabinet member or a commission, but the grade point average and the performance of each candidate. The best performing applicant is granted the right to choose first. The second best candidate is entitled to make a choice right after him. So we benefit mutually. The best performing students and university graduates will no longer have reasons to believe that their years of studying and investment won’t pay off as it would take finding an influential person, the right party or worse give someone a bribe in exchange of a job position in the public administration. We also benefit from this process as this is a concrete and efficient way to halt the influx of party militants to the public administration and provide best performing students and hardworking people the opportunity to serve in the administration of the Albanian state.
It is a process set to continue. In a few days’ time, another call will be launched, inviting a number of students and university graduates with a grade point average 9 to 10 to apply in order to join our diplomatic service, which is undergoing a restructuring process in order to remove all serious effects of politic cronyism, and nepotism of the past. We have cleansed the institution of such phenomenon, yet it is not enough. We will overhaul the whole service. Again, the call is extended to the best performing ones.
Meanwhile, we have already finalized the digital library process, another commitment under the Pact for the University and a student demand we will finally meet in few days’ time. Utmost efforts are underway technically to provide access to everyone to this library, which will feature millions of scientific titles, editions and hundreds and thousands books, the same sort of library used by students in Europe and the United States. The project will give an extraordinary impetus to the scientific research and is a tremendous opportunity for everyone who are attending the university, not to spend time, but are graduated, ready and worthy to their family and the society.
Another element we have been discussing even prior to this meeting, is the student card. Preparations under the first phase for the student card have been launched long time ago. It is not an easy process although it may sound quite simple as it takes a whole organizing system, but the implementation phase will initially kick-off in the Municipality of Tirana as the capital city has a large population. Based on this model, the process will expand towards other university cities by ensuring an interaction between the Albanian student card and the European student card and the Ministry of Education is working to make sure that the student card is also a valid document when a student travels abroad, namely to the countries which have signed the pact among the EU universities.
These are the data for the time being and this is the progress in the implementation efforts of the Pact for the University.
I would also like to congratulate and wish every success to the new university administrative board members. The university boards have been changed completely to reflect another students’ demand, but also to reflect the fact that they didn’t live up to their responsibilities and obligations. I believe we have now reached a new stage with improved board’s quality, given that the new board members are not only honourable people, just like the previous members were, but they had not been forcibly appointed to this process and they are aware that they are joining the university boards following the student protest. This will raise awareness and responsibility while serving as members of the university board, which is not merely a structure one joins in just to receive a bonus, but it is an extremely important element in the university life and in ensuring the university autonomy, both as freedom and responsibility. Freedom to make decisions but also a responsibility. Not only freedom for the universities and the government was responsible for everything. The university and the government should both do their share.
There are three student demands that we can’t fulfil although they are key demands. The government can’t commit to their fulfilment, yet it can help and provide support in the process.
We can build dorms and student housing facilities without asking the university first. We can invest in building a facility or a laboratory, but we can’t vet the academic personnel and the academic titles.
We can’t evaluate the performance of the university lecturers if the university does not take over.
Third, we also can’t halt the sale of textbooks by lecturers in exchange of a grade if the university doesn’t take over this process.
What concerns me most is the fact that silence is prevailing over this three demands for months now.
I have seen firsthand a positive experience in Korça. The University of Korça, courageously and admirably, has developed a process of vetting the academic degrees. On the other hand, I have also seen an aggressive segment within the universities that have constantly objected the Higher Education Reform since the very first day, but these three issues are driving this segment away like demons from the burning incense.
We have pledged to provide the conditions and logistics to support conduct of the vetting of the academic degrees, but the government will not carry out this process. The government and the Ministry of Education cannot conduct this process as it would violate the legislation and the approach we have adopted, because it is a foundation of the morality of university life. And the university itself should guarantee such a foundation.
Student evaluation of the lecturers’ performance is a simple process that is conducted in entire democratic university world and it is an instrument that leaves no room for whitchhunting, provides no opportunity for any retaliation and allows every student and decision-making bodies, the university council, the senate and the board, to collect some data on the students’ perception and what they think about certain lecturers.
As for the textbooks, in this regard I would like to say that that we are impatiently looking forward to seeing the university acting and I would not like that we counteract. I would not like to address the Parliament and ask for help to intervene, but students and their parents have legitimate reasons for concern. I am using an expression of euphemism to highlight the fact that not all lecturers deserve to be paid on the Albanian taxpayers’ money and then bragging about their success as doctorate degree holders, as professors, as assistants, while they are merely charlatans. They are very righteous and it is unfair to the rest of the healthy group of university professors and lecturers.
I am not playing politics, or I am not speaking diplomatically when saying that the majority of lecturers deserve to be there as they can really teach students despite the tough working conditions, and the university is not to be blamed for this, but the governments of all times, including my government. Mixing these two species and keeping such charlatans in the university is a strong responsibility that cannot weigh down on the shoulders of this university world that we are changing step by step. Above all, this is a great responsibility of all of us, the government of the Republic of Albania and the universities’ governments towards parents and the taxpayers who cover today full tuition fees for the best performing students and students coming from poor families, or students with disabilities, by also providing a scholarship of 100 000 lek each month.
This is a great sacrifice. Just like it is a great sacrifice to cover 50 percent of the tuition fee for every student, including the failing students, but, as we have already stated, this will end in the next academic year. It is absolutely intolerable that such a sacrifice is despised by certain lecturers who have lied about their academic degrees and yet they are paid on taxpayers’ money.
In this respect, I would like you to react and launch a process. You can make use of the earlier examples. I highlighted Korça’s example, but there may be some other cases, but this has yet to happen. I do not want the moment to come so that we address to the Parliament and ask for an alternative solution.
This won’t go away easily. It won’t be forgotten. We will not betray students, especially when it comes to this issue, we can’t pretend as if we don’t understand, or don’t know how or forget, because the problem is still right there inside the university. It may emerge or disappear depending on how much attention it attracts, but it is still there, appearing and disappearing from the public eyes. Charlatans enter through the university doors every day, seriously jeopardizing the moral of university life.
Likewise, we are also reflecting and hopefully we will soon receive conclusions regarding the inclusion of the Albanian language in the curricula of the higher education. We are witnessing a dramatic situation regarding the use of the Albanian language generally speaking. The Albanian language was omitted from the high education curriculum but we reintroduced it, yet we are seeing a kind of aggression against the Albanian language. Therefore, we are seeking to include Albanian in every university department. It is impossible to be a good geologist unless you can’t write Albanian correctly.
We are also reflecting about the English language. Everyone should pass the English language exam as stipulated by rule, but it is too good to be true that someone has a high level of proficiency in English while failing in Albanian. These two are part of this reflection. It can’t be a coincidence that the best performing students read English books. The digital library is now available, yet it is not in Albanian, but in English and one cannot imagine that there could be an Albanian global library.
These reflections are part of an ongoing process and when the right conclusions are drawn, we will then announce our future steps, but the Albanian language will take the place it deserves in the university.
Thank you!
