Address of Prime Minister Rama at the special parliamentary session on the draft law “On higher education and research in higher education institutions in the Republic of Albania”:
This is a debate that unlike many other defines very clearly a dividing line in philosophy between us and the others. It defines very clearly our willingness to break with a history of failures and major damages to the higher education system.
It is important, I believe that talking about this project – which is not a project to reorganize from scratch the higher education system in the wake of reorganizations that have been made, but it is a project to make a revolution in the higher education – we should decide in advance the background of this debate and refer the base on which we started to come here, after a process that I consider an example of inclusiveness and discussion, and to ask the parliament to vote this historic reform of the higher education system.
The situation in 2013, not according to opinions but according to facts, was the following:
59 higher education institutions of which 44 were private. 8 times more than the United Kingdom and 15 times more than Germany per 1 million inhabitants.
The famous part-time system, a show on its own performed on Saturdays and Sundays within the weekly horror of the public higher education. This show included also the domain of applied studies in medicine, etc., which are part of the regulated professions that in no reasonable world can be acquired by attending fictive classes in the weekends. Our system of higher education was built up and vegetated outside the reasonable world, and the famous part-time of Saturdays and Sundays only counted up to 28.117 students, or said differently: the number of students in Albania graduating outside the system by attending classes on Saturdays and Sundays only was equal to the number of students of private universities.
We intervened immediately and blocked the shares for this original and unique type in the part-time world, part-time on the weekends, and this law defines the part-time attendance of studies within a normal framework of international standards.
The overall number of the programs of study was 1432, of which 762 were programs taught in the public institutions of higher education, whereas 690 were taught in the private institutions of higher education. Meanwhile, 88% of the students attended public universities and only 12% attended private universities.
There you have the system built up by them. It was a political choice, not an education policy. It was a political choice in order to not face the major wound of youth unemployment, and in order to buy time and stay in power, and to tell students: “There you have universities. Crowd in and then we’ll see.”
The whole propaganda made with one hand on the heart for the poor and in name of the generosity for the poor, while the entire system of higher education is smashed, is a propaganda that can be made by those who choose this kind of policy while they’re in power; but if it is made by the opposition, it is something to feel really sorry about. For in fact, the consequence of that kind of policy and of that political choice, to buy time to stay in power by stealing the dreams and the money of the parents and giving them the illusion that their children were being educated in university, is that we have a lot of graduated people and a few educated people. What a big difference there is! In addition, that system made worthless every diploma, and the poor people who invested all their savings to have their children educated in universities lost everything just like those who invested their savings in the holding companies of Sude, Xhaferr, Vebi and so on.
Basically, what was massively sold was a movement offered like a development movement, like any other development movement that has been offered by them in every sector, but which is in fact only a widening of the space of chaos and corruption, where the dizzying lightness with which they would talk about the right to development – and we have encountered this in every sector – was accompanied even here by a dizzying void where every mechanism of standardization, monitoring and reaction to negative consequences of this policy was totally missing, and where everything became the cancer of the higher education system.
Here are some indicators, which are facts and not opinions.
We had only 7 private institutions providing higher education in 2005.
They became 44 in 2013, and 22 of them or 50% were licensed only during the second term of the government of devastation.
The 10 programs of study we had in 2005 became 1432 in 2013. 75% of the new programs of study, which were a direct consequence of the inertia created by this chaos, belong to the last period of 8 years of that government.
Now, look at the indicators of accreditation. I do not refer to our wish, but to the law in force. The law was approved by those who until yesterday were the majority, and it was supposed to be implemented by the government of those who until yesterday were the majority.
No institution of the public higher education was accredited until September 2013.
And in 2013 only, in the orgiastic pre-election period, 11 private universities were accredited, but yet it was only 25% of the overall number of private universities. Whereas only one institution was accredited by 2006, the institutions accredited in 2013 were 32, 29 of which or 85% was accredited in the last period of government. 13 out of the 18 holding companies, which were later closed own, were accredited in this period.
Meanwhile, there were only two programs of study accredited for the institutions of higher education, only two programs belonging to the academy of defense. What does this mean? This means that the propaganda for massification according to which we would equal Germany, you must remember it, was actually a rush to equal Germany in the number of students; and this propaganda that was not accompanied by the necessary tools could not produce anything but the chaos and the corruption it produced, and basically no warranty mechanism for the poor that became even poorer, and for whom you feel sorry today as if it weren’t you who built the system which we committed to overthrow when we were in opposition – back when no one would have imagined, as they say.
This law does not reorganize the system. It overthrows it.
Actually, 90% of the programs provided by these universities that were closed down like holding companies was accredited during the last period of government. 30% of them was accredited in the period from January to July, for elections. In just one meeting, they decided on 40 accreditations. What for? For creating and strengthening further the illusion of a guaranteed education. You probably remember that expression: “The money of the holding companies is clean money. It is the sweat and tears of the Albanians. Take your money in the holding companies.” Same thing with accreditation. The only difference from the holding companies is that, whereas holding companies fell impetuously, the wounds opened throughout these years, which have not been closed yet and which will continue to be opened for a long time, affect painfully the economy and the psychology of all those families who believed in that system and in that propaganda, and who invested their savings and took their children in those holding companies with the conviction that they would come out of there as doctors, engineers, architects and so on.
On the other hand, if you look at the accreditation procedures – still a fact and not an opinion – pursuant to an existing law, 90% of the accreditations have infringed the rules with serious financial consequences. So, procedures were not made conformingly to the existing law which we will abrogate today.
Assessment procedures for accreditation carried out within a day, and accreditations made in three days by those who did not bother in 8 years to accredit any public university.
To continue, another simple fact. Do you know who was chairman of the Accreditation Committee? It was the owner of one of the universities that were closed; of one of the holding companies that fell down and took with them the dreams and savings of the parents of those young people who went there to receive and education, but who could receive neither an education nor a diploma. Back then, he was also advisor to the prime minister.
So, suffice it to mention this fact in order to give a clear idea on how accreditation was carried out in our Republic, in the Republic where they governed for 8 years having as priority the poverty of aspirations which is the root of every other poverty. That poverty of aspirations which have them saying today, 25 years later, just like communists used to say, that “conditions are not met for us to be similar to the Great Britain or to be similar to Europe, for we are poor so let’s fill people’s tummy with empty spoons, with a worthless diploma, because in the end it is far better to keep them in the classrooms than to leave them in the streets.” This is a typical expression of the poverty of aspirations. Had Albania passed this reform 20 years before – I am not allowed to name names here, but I telling you that one of you here in this room who knows about this issue, would confirm what I am going to say, not here because here he will say the exact opposite – so, had we taken this road 20 years ago, today we would have certainly been in a totally different position.
This law does not solve magically this historic transition guaranteed by the basis of the law. It will take years, but at least the history of crawling in the swamp and mire of the poverty of aspirations ends here once and for all. After this, there is no doubt that challenges are all ahead.
Basically, 18 universities fell down like the holding companies while the remaining others were suspended. Now, let’s see what happens with the state university, since it is also my biggest concern.
In my opinion, in addition to making this political choice, those who divide state universities – for they are not even public – from private universities as if the former were of the mother’s and the latter were of the stepmother’s, belong to a world that does not exist anymore and agree on maintaining state institutions that do not meet the minimum state standards required both by the law that they made and by the rules that they made, with the finances of the state who is neither rich nor is able to perform miracles as far as education funding is concerned.
There is no organizational structure or any faculties making up this structure. There are no departments counted for each faculty or a relation between the academic leading line and the administrative leading line.
Instead, there is a completely chaotic way of governing institutions and branches opened for election campaigns and for votes – for I heard here someone saying “what you are doing is a law on education to have votes”. The only law made with the purpose of taking money and votes abusively is the law that will be abrogated today, along with programs of study out of control and without any standard; along with the changes in the programs of study that were totally unfounded in arguments, as required by your law, and not supported officially since those who should support them officially did not even bother to do so.
Not to mention on the other hand the statutes and regulations which were never assessed, never approved by the Ministry of Education, which have infringed every law and act; not to mention the countless illegal orders by ministers who really wanted and were eager to make a law similar to the one we made, and very dissimilar from the one they made, and who ordered the opening of program of studies, accreditations that were assessed negatively by the assessment institutions, and accreditations of institutions and of programs with many standards that could be easily verified. All these are facts, not opinions.
Most of the institutions didn’t have academic staff as required by law and according to the criteria established by you. Everything was a farce. Criteria for the internal staff for every department, criteria for the qualified staff with academic titles for every department, students’ enrollment, and so on… None of this has ever existed. You made them and you destroyed them.
Not to mention the countless infringements in the management of official records; infringement of records for the transfer of students, infringement of the contractual and financial relations with students.
I won’t dwell into the laboratories, but I just want to say that your three ministers, one after another, I’m not naming names, have illegally proposed to open, neither more nor less, 21 universities that were closed or suspended. 17 of them were closed, and 4 were suspended. Scandalous! The procedures for their opening were totally illegal, formally illegal.
Everybody can give their opinion on higher education, but I believe that a government and members of a political party in government that took education to the point where there are contracts such as: “Donate a car and you’ll have a three-year university scholarship. Donate 800 liters of oil with an open contract for three years and you’ll have four three-year scholarships or other services. Donate 17 computers and you’ll have 6 three-year scholarships. Do windows frames for free…” Is this what you mean for higher education? “Donate timber materials and you will receive four scholarships. Donate two tons of sawdust in exchange of 2 three-year scholarship for scientific qualification”. Is this what you mean for higher education? Don’t you understand now that when you come here and speak as if you came from heaven you sound quite ridiculous? Do you? “Donate grape brandy, some apples and wine and you will receive scholarship on the basis of the quantity of grapes, apples and wine”. Do you see what kind of vineyards and distilleries you have set in motion to give scholarships? “Donate a used Volkswagen and a Chevrolet and you’ll receive 2 three-year scholarships. Donate 20 van seats and the internal system of the van, but not the van, and you’ll receive 2 two-year scholarships.” Is this your higher education? You who come here and say: “It is us here! We are many!” Actually, it is those poor people staying in the hot weather in front of the door. It is also some others, the 1989 organization of the university party who gathered in the premises of SHQUP – I wonder how you found the way to find each other when it comes to defend the old one. You know it better! All of you gathered at the SHQUP, the whole Labor Party organization of the university, all of you. What for? For saying: “They’re taking away our higher education”.
I’m not continuing with the Ford Fiestas, because there are too many cars to mention, but listen to this. I will quote an honorable professor. There are some professors who have joint these petitions, 7 petitions at the same time in 7 different places. I can’t figure out how someone can be at the same time in 7 different place. This is one of their findings. But remember this. In those 7 places at the same time they take money, not grape brandy. Money! Money from the state pockets; money from the pockets of families in private universities.
I heard one of you saying: “Science is destroyed”. Look at the science you have done. You have done a great science, and you have even earned a PhD on how to distribute doctors in Prizren. This was the topic of your study. Do you know what the PhD process looks like today? It looks like an iron fist of the old party organization, with some from the new party, but where there is one who magically connects it to the old party, and whereas you law says: “No more than 5 students per advisor”, they have up to 15 students. There is even a super dean holding the record of 40 doctoral candidates. This one belongs both to the old and to the new party. He belongs also to the organization of the labor party, of the 1989 and of SHQUP. 40 doctoral candidates! What are these super professors who have filed a super petition and have rung a super alarm to denounce a super scandal? What is the scandal? The scandal is actually what we have been chasing after for all this time: destroy this caste that has taken hostage the state university and has turned it into a banality for over 20 years!
Now, let’s look at the Albanian studies. Some of the PhD study topics were: “History of the notary’s function. This one is a doctor of philosophy, in addition to being one of those who have signed the petition. “Acting in the Kosovo movie”. “Albanology! Kosovo’s history in the relations with the Arab world”. Ok. This one has higher expectations. “Dentistry management in the district of Tirana”. A PhD thesis!
You reached the very top with a gynecologist, not the one you ruined, but another one who did his PhD studies on midwifery, with a thesis on “How to become a midwife”, – and this one is a gynecologist. Here you have your system! You, who come up here and talk about the Evil, about God, about Skanderbeg and about Migjeni. Don’t you understand how far you have come? Do you?
None of the public institutions of higher education did ever fulfill the legal obligation to have their legitimacy validated during your government. No one!
The documentation on which these higher education institutions are based is such that they should all fail the exam, rather than being called universities that provide knowledge to others. They should all fail the class and not call themselves university. All this has been going on at the expenses of the Albanian people, everything has been done on behalf of the war with poverty; everything with the motto “let’s catch up Germany”. The fact is that two thirds of the institutions of the public higher education do not meet the standards of basic units. Two thirds of them have no standards!
Now, let’s look at democracy and autonomy, since they mention these two a lot. If we look at the facts, in 70% of the institutions of higher education, the so called collegial bodies function like gangs infringing all legal and sublegal acts made by you, and even their own regulation. Their own regulation could not conform to their behavior; their behavior towards the budget, their behavior towards the moral contractual relations with students, their behavior towards the Constitution of the Republic of Albania. Not to mention the recruitment criteria for the academic staff, be it effective or invited – these are words invented by you – is a show on its own. Shame! Shame! Shame!
It is a shame to read about this, imagine to be part of the organization of this criminal disorganization. 100%, not 99%, with facts. To anyone who wants to verify what I said we can give facts.
100% of the institutions of higher education in Albania do not meet the legal criteria for admission at a master’s program of study. All of them. Everybody has a master’s degree. So, they are all masters. 70% do not even meet criteria for the Master of Science. You treated the Master of Science like economic subsidy. Let’s give the poor guy a master’s degree, so he will think he is going to be a master of science. It is important to have him occupied with this, while we make a mess in the other sectors in Albania.
One lady here mentioned the devil, and I recalled the saying that goes: “it’s not devil the real threat to this world, but stupidity. That’s why we need a crusade against stupidity, because it is the only way to make a difference.” It’s not me who says this.
So, what are we going to do?
I’m putting it very simply, so that we won’t dwell into terminology.
Every penny spent for the higher education will be translated into a public good. Whether it was paid by the state or the private. This means that, according to us, higher education must be the field of competition and merit, and not a field where those who are children of their mothers have fun with the daddy’s money, while those who have a stepmother robe the orphaned, in order to steal their dreams and money and make a profit out of it.
After this law no university will make money for profit any more. Everything will become an investment in education. There will be no more a division between “public” and “private”. This is not correct. Actually, there is “state” and “private”. To us, everyone is public. Everyone in the field of higher education must provide education as a public good, and whether it is self-financed or financed by the state, it should guarantee competition and merit. We need the students, we need those who you feel sorry about but make come here in this hot weather. They haven’t even read the law but unfortunately have to listen to you, for they don’t know history although it is very recent. It is this simple. We need a system of the higher education where everyone investing on higher education will receive back their investment. They will have it at that part of public education funded either by the state or by the private. This is not important for us.
To be clear, we will not take any money to any private university, and will not give money for nothing to any state university. The money will go to students and be shared based on the performance of universities. State and private universities should compete equally in order to produce a public good, and not like it used to be when some would just mind of their profits and the others of their salary. Produce public good! You, the party of freedom, the party of market economy, you who have forgotten it all and have become a mere organization of 1989. You talk here like somebody has come here to take away universities and take them abroad. Come to your senses! You are complaining that we are closing down the places of knowledge. The moldy places of mediocrity, parasitism and self-deception who have ranked Albania at the very bottom for 25 years. What a shame. Just have a look at the rankings and tests. Go and ask to the British accreditation agency how the accreditation process is going. They cannot pull themselves together, imagine if they can figure out something about the university. We haven’t seen, heard, thought or imagined that something like this could exist in today’s world. Who did this? The devil?
We have promised and we will be faithful to our promises, but we will deal with them after 2 years. You got your results in your referendum of June 21. From the big Democratic Party, you’ve become a small party that is pleased with a few municipalities, and you say: “we’ve made progress”. This reminds me of that saying “we’re being careful within the zone of danger”. You’re in your own world, and it’s ok. Our promises is there and we will deal with it. We believe in massivization, not in the messivization. We are for admission standards, and the government should remove the quotas. Everyone going to university should know they are going in a battlefield for knowledge and not in a refugium peccatorum where they can get high and stare at each other. Everybody has this right, but their merit must be tested as well.
On the other hand, the state remains the main financier. It cannot be otherwise. But the diversification of funding sources, especially in our conditions, is an absolute necessity. We found the state coffers empty, and they had left us with 720 million ALL to be paid on behalf of the debtors staying behind doors, because their father had rolled the dice to win the elections and had disappeared. So, what to do? The solution is that other sources should be included in this system, in this well-defined mission, and the private is welcomed.
I don’t understand how come that you don’t feel ashamed. The party of the privates, the right wing. I’ve been hearing you mumbling for a month about some lobbyists, some of this and that, but no names. Just give me one name. I’m telling you again. You’ve become a 1989 organization, because of this law. You are the mere organization of the 1989 university. The efforts made in 25 years for democracy are gone. You’re back to the period prior to 1990, and how can the strong public sector be? We believe in the public sector, but what about the public sector without competition? A public sector where things are received for nothing? A public sector with competition. No more monopole. The state cannot have the monopole. In universities funded mainly by the state everything is free and open, and the best wins. We are interested in the knowledge acquired by those who access university, not in whose the university is. This is ours, while that one is of the kulaks’. That’s what you did and found even the most beautiful name for it. “Kristal”. Just, crystal clear.
The monument that you raised as the example of your education philosophy was crystal-clear, and the name you chose in cooperation suits perfectly. It is not the state that chooses. It cannot be the state that chooses. It is students who chose. Keep this in mind; it is the student who chooses. It is the student’s choice that determines where the state takes the money, it is the state that determines where the student will go. “You go to this university, for we have to keep some people employed, a lot of people, and come out of there worse than those who remained inside”.
Funds are allocated based on the performance, and not based on those who already has the money and says: “I can do what I want, and I can even chose to not do anything. I can chose to pop out either scientists or woodcutters, for I’ve got the funds”. Really?
What about those who pay taxes, what about their children? Don’t they have any right to check? Don’t they have any right to know where their money is going?
Of course, the system must be unified, standardized in order to be competitive, otherwise we are outside, we are out completely, off the map of Europe, off the map of the region, we do not exist.
This is fact. All the rest is fairy tales.
Do not forget that the parents of this country, compared with other countries in the region, are the biggest investors for their children’s education. Look at how much money they invest to have their children educated abroad. Look at the figures and see how many students from Serbia, from Macedonia, from Bosnia, from Montenegro and from Greece study abroad, and then see how many are those from Albania financed not by the state, but by their families. Why shouldn’t we have universities so that at least a part of this investment stays here?
Why should everybody go abroad terrified? What is there that makes a distinction into “we” and “you”? In the end, isn’t it about giving a direction to a story that has been without direction for 25 years? It is a fact, and you can say what you want. I am not saying that you did it on purpose, because you wanted to do your best. But you did everything with as little as you knew.
One more thing. Why do you lie and say that this law rises tuition fees and that it is for the rich? The law defines where the states invests. The states invests in three categories: the state invests in the students of excellence, in those who are stimulated to chose non-appealing and non-competitive programs of study – for you destroyed Albania; there are no more teachers of mathematics and of the Albanian language. Do you understand this? What will we do? We will stimulate financially those who cannot afford to pay for their studies, but who should however prove that they able to access university, that they have the talent. They just need the money, and we will give them the money. All the others should be equal. These are the three categories funded by the state. We’ve come to this point following the mish-mash theory in doing things. You like this, and you call it a big achievement. We, instead, are terrified. This is the difference.
Last one, it is not the state, it is not the government and the ministry who organize and manage the daily work of the higher education system, and this is another big difference. Chapter 12.
Chapter 12 is the essence of the law, for some specialized agencies are given the opportunity to act as manager. You have joined the academic world with management. It does not happen in any country. You want both scientists and the managers. So, you call them as scientists and ask them to manage the money. How can scientists do management? What do scientists have to do with management? Let’s suppose they are scientists, for they are not, but this is another story; – let’s say they are scientists. What do they have to do with the management of money?
The law creates a management system. So, we introduce the concept of management at universities that does not exist at all. You call management those who do tenders. It’s called manager.
I won’t dwell into these although there is a lot to say. I haven’t spoken. I’ve preferred not to talk about this issue and I am very sorry for one thing.
This bill is an example for us as well. Under the leadership of the Minister of Education, we have submitted our power to a group of experts who, in our view, are among the best that our country offers, at home and abroad. We haven’t looked at their party card. We have seen some of them in your electoral campaign; I won’t name names, you know them. We want to do a law on higher education to address this cancer and have the means to fight it, and then start a new era.
It is the work of a commission of higher education reform, and I want to show them all due respect, although I have no sympathy for a part of them, I have no sympathy when it comes to political opinion or even when it comes to the fact that they still believe in the Democratic Party. The only thing that matters here is expertise.
Now, you come out and say: it’s the prime minister’s will. I am telling you, it’s the experts’ will. We put in this expertise the political will, as we will do with justice reform.
We have the political will. We have told our 5 principles. We want this direction, this is our philosophy. We don’t want to make distinction between the state’s, the private’s, the stepmother’s. We want competition, merit, and we want the public money to go where the best performance is. Full mark. This law enables this.
The European Commission for Education, a European personality, who has come in Albania just for this, stated: “This is a revolutionizing law for Higher Education, and a model to be followed in the region.” OK!
Because there is a law invented by us, the Albanian way, your way. It is not crystal.
This is what I had to say, and listening to these debates made me think of a saying: “being stupid, complacent and have good health are three basic requirements to be happy”. I wish happiness to all those who think what they think, and who say what they have said, say and will say, but we cannot do more for them.
We will vote the law, and Higher Education in Albania will be radically transformed by a revolution.
Thank you!
