Denada Jushi
Esmeralda is a student with high grades, who, in parallel with high school, is also taking two foreign language courses, German and Italian, as she is fluent in English.
"I want to study abroad, my mother wants me in Germany, but I myself adore Italy. I want to study economic informatics, my mother is a math teacher."
Two generations that demonstrate how the orientation towards studies has changed.
Albanian society has also experienced, similar to Western countries, a rapid transformation dictated by technology, globalization, and massive demographic movements in recent years.
The changes have affected every sector, but one of the areas where the consequences are most visible and worrying is higher education. More than ever, unfortunately, we are “exporting” students abroad.
The question that arises in this case is: are universities in Albania responding to the changes that are taking place?
Albanian universities are increasingly facing empty quotas, declining study branches, and programs that risk closure, reflecting not only the choices of young people, but also the structural crisis of the education system, which has failed to keep up with the "step of the times."
The report of the Center for Educational Services for the academic year 2024–2025 on the admissions process in Higher Education Institutions shows us the state we are in today. Although the academic offer remains broad, a significant portion of the quotas are not filled, while the interest of high school graduates in some fields of study continues to decline.
According to official data, during this academic year, a total of 593 study programs were offered, of which 329 from public universities and 264 from non-public institutions. Of these, 99 programs are two-year programs of a professional nature, designed to bring higher education closer to the labor market. These programs aim to respond to developments in sectors such as tourism, technology, Services and the economy, which are changing the employment structure in the country.
In total, for the first cycle, two-year professional programs and integrated second cycle programs, 32,177 quotas were offered. However, only 66.92% of them were filled with enrollments, leaving about 33% of the quotas empty. A similar situation is reflected in the non-public sector, where the quota filling rate was 63.30%. This gap between supply and demand raises serious questions about the long-term planning of higher education and its adaptation to the country's demographic movements.
According to Prof. As. Dr. Ndriçim Mehmeti, the phenomenon of empty quotas cannot be seen in isolation from the general crisis that Albanian society is experiencing.
"The empty quotas overall indicate a significant lack of young people completing high school and are at the same time an alarming sign of the crisis gripping Albanian education," he emphasizes.
According to Mehmeti, this is also related to the orientation of young people towards programs that provide employment opportunities in the international market, such as medicine and information technology, more so than in the domestic market.
Prime Minister Rama also spoke a few days ago at the Rectors' Conference about the need for a reform of the education system.
"The challenge is to reorganize them into a much more competitive, reliable and much more prepared system to cope with all that will come with EU membership. The university is the country's most important ally in a process like this," he said.
The report confirms that public universities continue to be the main choice of Albanian high school graduates. The University of Tirana leads the list with 15.49% of total enrollments, offering the largest number of quotas, followed by the University of Durrës with 8.27%. Some institutions achieve almost full quotas, such as the Security Academy, the Armed Forces Academy and the University of Medicine, with rates above 97%.
For years, medical fields have been among the most sought-after in the country. The average grade of incoming students at the University of Medicine reaches 9.08, the highest in the country. However, this high interest does not translate into an improvement in the situation of the Albanian healthcare system. Albania continues to face a shortage of doctors, due to massive emigration to European Union countries.
"Today, a young person chooses a profession not simply out of passion, but to build his life. The professions that are in demand in Europe give him the opportunity to suffer less and have more dignity," says Mehmeti, emphasizing that choosing a branch is in fact a life choice.
On the other side of this phenomenon are the teaching branches, which are experiencing a very large decline. Out of 593 study programs, only 65 belong to the teaching field and only 1,408 students are enrolled in them, or 6.53% of the total. Pedagogist and education expert Lili Sula describes the situation as alarming.
"Teaching programs are in sharp decline every year. In many regional universities, these programs are being run with fewer than 10 students, while they should have formally been closed," she emphasizes.
According to Sula, the causes are numerous, such as the massive emigration of young people, the low financial treatment of teachers, the lack of job security and a centralized and politicized employment system. “Albanian teachers are the worst paid in the region. This makes the profession unattractive for the younger generations,” she adds.
The crisis is even deeper in the branches of Albanology, such as Language and Literature, History and Geography. Sula considers these branches national assets and emphasizes that the lack of state support is leading them to extinction. “These are branches of our national identity. The state should have protected them, even at financial cost, but this has not happened,” she says.
Meanwhile, Ndriçim Mehmeti sees the problem as a marked lack of political and social will for education. “There is no serious debate on education, culture and science. Education is one of the last concerns for Albanian politics,” he emphasizes, adding that the education budget remains far from the real needs of the system.
Both experts agree that changing curricula is not enough to solve the crisis. Solutions require long-term policies, starting from financial support for student teachers, salary increases, the restoration of teacher status, investment in scientific research, and a real link between universities and the labor market.
Despite the quotas that were not met, when it comes to the budget that is set for these quotas, there is no explanation.
ACQJ officially addressed the Tirana Rectorate to find out what happens with this budget, when the quotas remain empty, but so far, no response has been given by this institution.
Overall, the data for the academic year 2024–2025 show a higher education system with a wide range of offerings, but with serious structural problems. Empty quotas are not just numbers in an official report, but an indicator of a society that is losing its youth and failing to build a long-term vision for education and the development of the country./acqj.al
