Life in Kosovo discusses about emergency situations
Tonight, Life in Kosovo will broadcast a debate on the emergency situations in our country.
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Every Thursday starting from 20:30, Radio Television Kosovo, RTK, broadcasts the TV debate show "Life in Kosovo", a joint production of BIRN and RTK.
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“Life in Kosovo” analyses the accreditation process of higher education institutions
02 April 2009 This “Life in Kosovo” analysed the accreditation process of higher education institutions in Kosovo.
Why were some members of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency dismissed or reappointed? Are these professional or political interferences? Why are these changes happening at the precise time when the agency has to come up with a decision on accrediting higher education institutions? Is the accreditation process politicised?
To discuss these and other issues regarding the accreditation process, Muhamet Hajrullahu’s guests in the studio were:
Enver Hoxhaj , Minister of Education;
Ferdije Zhushi –Etemi, member of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency;
Lorik Bajrami, from the“ ÇOHU” organisation;
Ramadan Zejnullahu, the dismissed head of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency.
In the “Culture in Kosovo” report, Arif Muharremi brought four events that shaped the cultural aspect of the week.
He took viewers to the “Katarina Josipi Awards” ceremony on the International Theatre Day, the exhibition of new artists from Macedonia titled “Identity”, and the launching of “Nation and Nationalism”, a book from Ernest Gellner.
He also focused on Isa Qosja’s “The woman who loved penguins”.
At the time when the Kosovo Accrediation Agency was coming up with decisions as to which higher education institutions where going to be accredited, Enver Hoxhaj, the Minister of Education, dismissed some of the members with the motive of refreshing the Agency.
Thus, the debate started with Muhamet Hajrullahu’s question, directed to the Minister, on the reason of such timing.
According to the Minister, a change like this marks the implementation of policies adopted by the Ministry of Education for higher education.
“The appointments took place in the board of the University of Prishtina as well, with the only reason of becoming functional. The new board consists of nine members with three internationals and six local representatives.
The former board consisted of seven local members and we couldn’t have an agency for evaluating private universities when all members of the agency were professors at the University of Prishtina,” explained Hoxhaj, assuring that everything regarding this process would be transparent as it has been until now.
“I welcome Minister’s decision on reappointing,” said Ramadan Zejnullahu, the now – dismissed, former head of the Kosovo Accreditation Agency, adding that the Minister has all the rights to use his competences on what he may regards as being appropriate for the time.
Speaking rather angrily on the lack of communication between the ministry and the agency, Zejnullahu was not satisfied with Hoxhaj’s attempt to regard this as a technical issue that is of less importance when it comes to the quality of accreditation process.
In the course of the debate, Hoxhaj revealed a problematic case of two higher education institutions.
In order to fulfill the criteria for accreditation Dardania University decided to establish an agreement with a university in Peja and another in Gjilan. Accordingly, ten days later Iliria University made an agreement with same universities as well, which means that legally both these entities stand re legally valid.
“For this reason, I requested the agency to solve this legal conflict, because I as a minister was not going to be a judge in this case,” explained Hoxhaj.
According to Ferdije Zhushi –Etemi, from the Kosovo Accreditation Agency, there was no political interference on the accreditation process from the minister, and the ministry didn’t even come up with a single suggestion on who can pair with mo, when it came to universities joining together to fulfill the student number criteria.
“We don’t want to enter the accreditation process with dilemmas,” added Zhushi.
As a representative from Cohu NGO who monitored this process, Lorik Bajrami warned that these reappointments should be treated with caution, because this, according to him, shows the tendency to control the process and to come up with positive evaluations for some universities that do not offer quality.
“In the beginning the Minister mentioned some reasons, which for me are very contradictive. If these changes were to increase functionality then they should have been done at the earliest stages of the process,” added Bajrami.
He also said that unfortunately Zhushi had worked more like a spokesperson for the minister than she has worked as the head of the Agency.
Judging from the tension in the studio, Zejnullahu added that critiques should be taken as positive tools that speed up processes.
According to him, the Kosovo Accreditation Agency had sent a request to the minister, for him to name higher education institutions judging from their number of students, which is one of the top criteria of the process.
The debate ended with Hoxhaj’s remarks for the future where he said that 2008 was going to be the year of the reformation in the education system.
At the end BIRN broadcast Kosovo’s Son-in-Law segment.
Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public
Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN.
It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20.
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