This September, the Agricultural University of Tirana will launch a new academic program in partnership with BOKU University of Vienna. This program is fully aligned with BOKU, a leading European university with a long-standing tradition in life sciences, and marks a significant turning point in Albania’s education system.
At a special event attended by Prime Minister Rama, students were introduced to nine new programs of study, providing an excellent opportunity for young people who will be essential to Albania’s future within the EU, particularly in fields related to the environment, food, and water.
Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Greetings to everyone, especially the students and high school graduates in attendance today. You are the main reason we have gathered here. It is crucial to inform as many graduates as possible about the new development taking place in Tirana.
It is unprecedented. I can confidently say that no other Albanian university has done what UBT is doing. Nowhere else in Albania will you find an opportunity as fundamental and European as the one this reform has opened at the Agricultural University.
The university has gone through two distinct phases in its history.
There was a time when the university was a true center of excellence, operating under difficult conditions with limited resources, and it was a point of reference. This was before the regime’s collapse, when the university was the primary source of knowledge for the country’s agricultural and rural needs. The UBT professors were outstanding scholars. That’s undeniable.
Then came a phase of decline, abandonment, and public degradation. Apart from the human resources within the university’s walls, nothing remained. The rector mentioned a phone call several times, as if it were a prophetic voice from the mountains. But, in fact, that call came only after we, together with the rector, intervened heavily and, frankly, shamefully to free the university from the occupiers who had taken over the campus for their own purposes, from selling kebabs to underwear.
It was dramatic to walk into the university, where you had to pass through a marketplace of illegal constructions and commercial activities just to enter a classroom. Naturally, this was also because many thought the time of the village was over, and the time of the city had come; the time of the land was over, and the time of the club table had arrived; the time of food production had ended, and the era of refrigerated sausage sandwiches had begun. The time of harvesters ended, and the time of stolen Mercedes-Benz cars arrived. Everyone turned their backs on UBT, which practically became a refugium peccatorum—a refuge for those students who didn’t have connections to climb the corrupt ladder into the so-called prestigious universities, where everyone entered to become lawyers. Thus, we created a population with the highest number of lawyers per square meter.
Meanwhile, the rector and I happened to be on the same wavelength—something uncommon between a socialist and a Democrat. Perhaps our communication was aided by our shared baldness, which made it easier to cross the party line. So, we began this adventure when the rector, in despair, said, “We have no way to keep this university alive unless we lower the admission threshold even further.” He meant dropping it from a GPA of 6 to 5—essentially going from half-dead to fully dead.
I told him that this is just survival by self-deception and will lead to complete ruin. What we need to do instead is aim for something entirely different. We need to make the Agricultural University trendy and turn it into a place where the youth of this country envision their future. To do that, we need to partner with a European university.”
We climbed the steps of BOKU, a university founded in 1872. The speaker before me was not a foreign consultant sent here by the World Bank to teach us “where to tie the donkey,” but rather the former rector of BOKU—who, when we first met, was still in office. I was the first prime minister to walk up those steps since 1872, so understandably, the rector was nervous. He had heard all sorts of things about Albania and Albanians. Now, in his eyes, the “big boss” of the Albanian mafia had shown up at his doorstep.
That’s where we had our first discussion. The rector was civil and well-mannered, and of course he couldn’t refuse to meet with us, but I could tell he was looking at us with a mix of surprise and fear. And yet, here we are today!
In short, thanks to this man who retired from academia during this period and generously joined us, we don’t just have a consultant; we have a true companion on this journey who knows exactly what we need. Thanks to Bardhi—Sallaku, to be clear, so as not to confuse him with the many other “right-wing Bardhis” out there—we managed to implement a radical reform.
In fact, the entire curriculum development process was shifted out of the hands of department heads and others who had always controlled it—for better or worse—and placed in the hands of an internal commission and the students themselves. I am convinced that by 2030, UBT and BOKU will merge, with UBT serving as BOKU’s antenna in our region.
Everyone should keep in mind that Albania does not need more lawyers. Let’s be realistic. There are plenty—more than enough. Albania could supply the Balkans and export lawyers to other continents. However, Albania, which will soon join the European Union, primarily needs specialists trained by the Agricultural University of Tirana. Albania, like Europe and the rest of the world, faces climate change, environmental degradation, rising temperatures, extreme weather, and the loss of ecosystems, which directly affect agriculture, the water supply, and biodiversity. These issues are inseparable from life on this planet and our journey within the European Union.
Albania lacks the skills to build climate-resilient agriculture, use land sustainably, and address environmental issues in a way that promotes well-being rather than impoverishment. Albania urgently needs these skills now and will need them even more in the coming years.
With EU membership, the number of professionals from fields covered by UBT who must be at the forefront of the Albanian state is much larger than the number of lawyers. Believe it or not. We need professionals who understand the issues, know what we need, and can reshape development.
Water scarcity and conflicts over resources are becoming issues even between states. Today, over two billion people face significant water shortages and thirst. Over two billion. Meanwhile, agriculture consumes about 70% of fresh water, which is why smart water management is a global topic of conversation. So, what does smart water management entail? It means integrated resource management, irrigation technology, and water policies that prevent crises and conflicts caused by water scarcity.
These topics are part of BOKU University’s work and research agenda, as well as the University of Tirana’s. One topic is food and feeding the population. How to feed a population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 and ensure food security are major issues.
Then there are all the major issues of innovation and technology related to the countryside—not the development of the countryside as a village because that is an urgent matter of perspective that needs to be resolved. There is no city without a countryside. In this sense, city people are different from countryside people. Without the countryside, there is no city. Without life in the countryside, there is no life in the city. Without production in the countryside, the city cannot survive. In this sense, we need knowledgeable people for all the technology that has begun entering very rapidly: satellites, drones, image processing, data, data analysis, and research on data. We are barely keeping up, but we are on time.
Natural disasters and risk management cannot be managed with the idea that the government is at fault simply because it didn’t clean the canal. New knowledge, new structures, and new forces are needed here. In short, what is needed more and more is the capacity of states, governments, institutions, and cities to provide integrated, interdisciplinary solutions combining science, engineering, economics, politics, and territorial knowledge.
Without a doubt, what the team led by Bardhi, Huberti, and the BOKU lecturers—more than 15 of whom have come to Tirana multiple times and are enthusiastic about the experience, according to Huberti—is planting new saplings of knowledge and professions in this territory. Naturally, this territory needs new forces who can knock on the door of the Agricultural University of Tirana with great clarity, information, and awareness, free of prejudice.
In the membership negotiation chapter, “Agriculture and Rural Development” is a separate chapter—it’s a “oh mother, oh mother” situation. The professors here who deal with European directives know this very well. “Environment and Climate Change” and “Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy” are separate chapters. “Water and Waste Management” are separate chapters. All of these together are the biggest headache for a country like ours. It’s not because we have problems that others haven’t had; it’s because we need knowledge. We need many knowledgeable people, and this university certainly provides the foundation. This cannot be done with foreign flour, no matter how many experts we bring in or how much help we receive. We need the knowledge that this university is producing, but of course, the inputs are very important. It is in our national interest and a priority to support this reform and this university unreservedly.
Now that we have this example, all universities in Albania should be very clear that if they want extra support, they need to do what the Agricultural University of Tirana is doing. They need to find a partner in Europe, join forces with them, and submit their “engagement papers” so that we can support them in their “marriage.” They can say, “I have a program here,” “I’m calling here,” or “We will do this, we will do that,” but they have no support from the government because they are autonomous. As long as there is no second university, any additional funding will go to the Agricultural University of Tirana.
We will make the Agricultural University of Tirana a beacon throughout the region. We will put it on the list of European universities for these subjects, which will give Albania an extraordinary and essential source of knowledge.
The others are fully respected and encouraged and will receive their portion of the budget, but no one will receive more than what we have allocated if they do not do the same. This is a real reform. Hubert briefly mentioned that there is a serious problem. Our universities cannot continue to resemble high schools with more years of teaching. Our universities must be research centers where students graduate as people who add value, not just people who can repeat what they have been taught.
We will support scientific research, the key and weakest point of the University of Tirana, with everything we can, together with BOKU, of course.
Bardhi must keep Hubert because the moment Hubert leaves, Bardhi’s problems become the opposition’s problems.
Thank you very much. I could have spoken longer, but honestly, I have great faith in this reform. I strongly believe in the lessons we have learned from this reform because we have learned as well. Soon, we will start drafting parts of the higher education law and take into consideration the lessons learned from this reform process, as well as the fundamental changes made at the University of Tirana regarding curricula and students’ real involvement, not just superficial involvement.
Let’s try putting one-third of the students there for no reason. We need real student involvement in matters related to their university life.
We will thoroughly review the issue of too many “heads” within one university, which is a big problem because choices are made. The rector, dean, and heads are chosen, and everyone says, “I have my own vision.” However, the university has one head and one leadership. It cannot have 17 heads with 17 different visions who want to hold onto their own little kingdom. This cannot happen.
What we are doing here will set a precedent for everyone. Visionaries in all directions are only found in madness. It’s like everyone thinks they’re Napoleon, Skanderbeg, and Pope Pius all at once. In real life, in a university or an organization, there is a vision, a mission, and a sense of responsibility. No one can say, “I have my own vision,” and expect it to be accepted. This will be a topic of higher education reform.
Thank you very much!
To all ambitious high school graduates with the highest grades, I say: Albania has plenty of lawyers, but not enough professionals in the hottest topics of today, which will become burning issues for the world, Europe, and Albania. Those few professionals are professors at UBT. Together with these professors, each girl and boy who enrolls at this university can become part of the category most needed by society. With a degree from this university, you will undoubtedly have open doors in the public and private sectors in Albania and Austria.
Jurist? Forget it! At best, you’ll end up as a court clerk. Thank you very much!