Prime Minister Edi Rama said that despite the fact that the country's universities are not in the same line as European universities, as the latter have full access to EU funds, the University of Tirana has made progress.
However, this progress has not been reflected in university rankings on the global map. Rama called the ranking of universities unacceptable.
I want to let you know that as we had discussed with the rectors at the Prague meeting, of the one that has been baptized as the new European Political Community, I have raised the subject of the university as a subject that must be addressed by the EU to be approved and addressed without waiting for Albania and the Balkan countries to become members of the EU. We have a partial access as countries waiting to enter the EU, while the EU countries with full access have on the one hand the possibility of immediate synergies and their extra funding. Which for us, is impossible because we are not yet part of the EU. We have a process and for the sake of truth I want to thank the rectors because we are looking at courageous steps. Because there is a good maintenance of European funds. I want to bring to your attention very important about the figures in UT.
Which has increased funding to more than 400 beneficiaries. But does it mean that half or a little more than half of the university lecturers. This is remarkable of the new leadership of UT. Making our capacity for scientific research increase very significantly. I bring this example back to what I said before. We have more capacity than we used to as a result of a very long period of stagnation and backwardness in dealing with human resources.
Today this is one of the most important effects of the reform. We have no future other than creating synergies and opening European universities in our universities. English language programs is a very significant step and here again I want to salute the work done by the University of Tirana.
To return to the topic, it is obvious that the reformation as a result of higher education is bringing an impact on teaching methods, management and new opportunities. For me and here and in every other direction, Albania is in the same position, day and night from where we started and night and day from where we will go.
Despite the fact that more use of autonomy is still needed, the issue that is raised today is that despite the real and concrete progress, precisely why our relationship with the future is skewed, the ranking of the country's Universities on the global map and after a very long time after the reform is unacceptable. But the good news is that it's a ranking that doesn't reflect capacity. I brought the example of access to European funds, even in those projects in which the University of Tirana has accessed European funds, we have several projects where the University of Tirana is the leader. Knowing the leadership of the University of Tirana, says that our capacities are much better than the appearance and the level of our rankings show, which are very low. Therefore, what we have decided is to take this aspect very seriously.