Bill Weldon, the author of the book “Considerations for Higher Education Systems in Post-Communist Societies: A Current Look at Czech Higher Education” (Weldon 2003), talking about the current state of the post-communist Czech higher education, wrote:

‘Higher education needs a champion. Within it there exists an apparent ambiguity of leadership. Leadership by committee, like a Rectors Conference, or leadership by influence, like some individual educators, is muddled in a confusion based on a lack of clearly defined leadership principles.’

The same concept that Weldon mentions applies to the post-communist Albania. Without a clearly defined set of leadership principles that distances itself radically from corruptive practices, it is impossible to make progress, because for every single step forward there will be an equal number of steps backward.

Post-communist countries in particular need this champion type of determined and well-defined leadership that Weldon mentions in order to really be able to move ahead and make progress. Public opinion generally places the blame for slow progress on the character and ability of the university community of faculty and students, but what has been happening at the University of Vlora in the last two years can completely prove that opinion wrong.

With the change in leadership at the January 2008 elections for the new university president, a series of radical reforms began to revolutionize the entire education system at the University of Vlora. The election of Prof. Dr. Tanush Shaska as Rector, an academic and well-known scholar with a vast career and training in western universities, brought to the university a new era of authenticity in scholarship and education.

The reforms were well planned and designed to be effective in a short amount of time, aiming to improve the system in three aspects:

• by raising educational standards
• by improving efficiency in administration
• by encouraging research and scholarship

The reforms up to date have been much more successful than what the students, the media the community had predicted or expected, by showing thus that the professors at the University of Vlora, including what is considered the older generation, are capable of change, able to keep up with the fast pace and high energy-consuming and time-demanding activities, if given the right kind of leadership.

E. Prifti

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