University of Vlora is steadily raising the bar of competence based learning, by fiercely combatting educational corruption and setting international standards for faculty performance and professional development.

Differently from all other higher education public institutions in Albania, the University of Vlora is striving to detach itself from the traditional old-system teaching mentality and methodology, managing through many struggles to be the first public university that is uninfluenced by the pressure of corruption and nepotism, and headed towards internationalization based on western standards.

E. Prifti

For the past two years, University of Vlora has undertaken a systematic and wide-ranging reassessment of institutional effectiveness and reengineering of its educational and administrational practices. The recent implementation and development of SIUV, the University of Vlora Information System, has allowed the institution to design and develop Intranet applications to provide a framework for knowledge management within the institution. The university’s key achievements with the introduction of SIUV include the following:

1. improvement of access to university information;
2. improvement of institutional decision-making;
3. improvement of communication among administration and faculty for collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas.

E. Prifti

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

The internet services were introduced at the University of Vlora in 2001, but IT staff was not included in the budget so the very small number of computers at the university was often virus stricken or non-functional. In February 2008 a special focus of the educational reforms taken by the president of the University was a total renewal of the University access to the internet and the creation of an IT office.

During 2009 more installations have been taking place. A complete local area network (LAN) installation was accomplished linking more than 100 computers and a proportional number of peripherals like all-in-one printers, photocopiers and scanners. LAN access was provided to all college buildings for almost every department office. More computers and peripherals were installed. The internet service which was initially introduced to the University in 2001 had one dial up line which was used to connect the lab computers and some of the offices to the internet. The speed of the dial up line was not more than 50 Kbps and because of the huge amount of traffic and poor computer management and protection, problems occurred very frequently.

In 2008 the University administration agreed to financially support a bigger bandwidth, and 256 Kbps internet line was installed. Almost at the same time with the installation of the bigger bandwidth, wireless connectivity within the University buildings was introduced to the existing network, providing a versatile connectivity solution for those who use a laptop computer.

E. Prifti

Starting in January 2008, the University of Vlora is applying a modernization agenda through curricular and governance reforms, causing changes that are shaping themselves into an era of progress and rapid development and planting a pioneer flag in the quest for quality in Albanian higher education.

Differently from all other higher education public institutions in Albania, the University of Vlora is striving to detach itself from the traditional old-system teaching mentality and methodology, managing through many struggles to be the first public university that is uninfluenced by the pressure of corruption and nepotism, and headed towards internationalization based on western standards.

The introduction of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) at the University of Vlora is transforming education at its core. The value of an effective knowledge management and the fostering of communication and exchange of information amongst administration, faculty, and students is being proven to be a vital key to the university functioning, development, and success.

Compared to only four semesters ago, when every piece of information, official or not, was transmitted by word of mouth and very few people knew how to use a computer, the University of Vlora now has completely a different face. The interesting thing is that the same people that not too long ago seemed to be unable to contain and let alone bring to life such a revolution, are now the ones who are keeping the whole system alive and working.

E. Prifti