For the first time in the region, Tirana is hosting the European Higher Education Area Ministerial Conference, bringing together ministers and higher education authorities from around the world.

At the opening ceremony, attended by the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, the Minister of Education and Sports, Ogerta Manastirliu, ministers and senior education officials, Manastirliu highlighted in her welcome speech the achievements that Albania has made in reforming higher education.

In her speech, she quoted a Latin saying: “We do not learn for the sake of school, but for the sake of life”, adding that this is the philosophy guiding Albania in the implementation of the higher education reform, with the aim of improving quality, increasing the academic offer, strengthening international cooperation and creating a vibrant higher education ecosystem that prepares the new generation.

The Minister underlined that the Albanian higher education system has grown and improved through international partnership.

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Thank you, Professor Xhuvani, Prime Minister, participants, dear colleagues!

It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to Tirana and I wish you a fruitful conference and a pleasant stay in such a lively city as Tirana.
I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our colleagues who are here today, the Ministers of Education, State Secretaries and Deputy Ministers, the Director General for Education, Culture and Science, Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen from the European Commission, the Rector of the European College, Federica Mogherini, representatives of UNESCO, the Council of Europe, senior officials from international organizations and representatives of European associations of teachers and students.

As Albania has been part of the Bologna Follow-up Group for four years and has also hosted the Secretariat of the European Area of Education, I would like to thank the Albanian Secretariat of the Bologna Follow-up Group, Mrs Subashi and the Deputy, Mrs Pustina, for their commitment and great work. I would like to thank the Italian delegation, the previous host of the conference in Rome, and congratulate Romania and Moldova, the countries that will host the next Bologna secretariat. I would also like to welcome the Ukrainian delegation to this meeting. This European area of education stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine, especially with the teachers and students who, despite difficult circumstances, continue to learn and acquire knowledge.

This Ministerial Conference is not just a discussion forum. It is an educational platform for the future of European education, and we are here to share our different and common experiences, our efforts and challenges, in order to set new goals and objectives to advance higher education throughout Europe.

Dear friends, there is a Latin expression that says: “We do not teach for the sake of school, but we teach for the sake of life” and this is the philosophy that guided us when we started to implement the reform of higher education in Albania, with the aim of improving quality, increasing the academic offer, strengthening international cooperation and creating a vibrant ecosystem of higher education that prepares the new generation for the future, this system that has everything needed to maintain and develop human capital.
The Albanian higher education system has experienced great growth and improvement through international partnership, and we believe that through internationalization we are increasing the quality of our universities and transforming the landscape of our higher education, enriching it with such excellence that only excellent European universities can offer, so that by 2030 we aim to become a regional point of reference for higher education and scientific research. That is why we are investing in this international cooperation, in mobility programs, in the transformation of curricula into training programs, in the strengthening of scientific research and its network.

Yesterday we signed a partnership, an agreement, a new model of international cooperation with the University of Life Sciences BOKU in Vienna and the Agricultural University in Tirana.

It is a new stage for our higher education, aimed at creating joint programmes and double degrees, and at the same time making the academic offer more attractive, more tempting, not only for Albanian students, but also for those who come to the Western Balkans and beyond.

Meanwhile, the market towards internationalization has been marked by one of the most important events in the academic history of Albania: the creation of a College of Europe campus after the one in Bruges. This is an important step forward that symbolizes Albania’s membership in the EU.
The presence of the College of Europe, the BOKU University of Vienna, the National University of Distance Education from Spain, which will soon open its campus in our country – these are clear examples of our vision of internationalising higher education. They pave the way for many more collaborations.

More than 20 agreements have been signed with EU Member States and third countries to strengthen cooperation in higher education and scientific research.

All these bridges of cooperation that we are building together are clear indicators of the full implementation of the Bologna Process, which is aimed precisely at ensuring mobility, the movement of students and academic staff, the exchange of the best experiences and guaranteeing a high quality of education and expanding spaces for interaction in scientific research. Thus, speaking about scientific research, Albania participated in the European programme ERASMUS+ “Horizon”, which aims to increase cultural exchanges, academic excellence and employment.

Significant investments have been made in modernizing scientific research environments, laboratories and technological equipment, and I am pleased to inform you that research funding has increased by 40% compared to 2023. The latest student surveys say that these students support these initiatives and programs with particular interest in increasing research opportunities and improving the digital infrastructure of services, encouraging and teaching, scientific research encourages us to explore ways to provide more funding, bringing it up to 1% of GDP by 2030. We are working to create centers of excellence that will serve as research centers for digital technology, green energy and biomedical sciences. Albania has made progress in integrating integrated platforms into the education system, from online platforms for student registration and admission to our universities, to online applications for study programs and their accreditation.

We are making great efforts to achieve high standards in this area of higher education and in the relevant control mechanisms. I am also pleased to inform you that we are in the process of finalizing the Smart 2030 specializations, which emphasize the development of human capital, with the aim of implementing a series of initiatives aimed at retaining young talent and emphasizing its circulation within the country and abroad. We are committed to developing our higher education with a clear vision for the future and fully aware of the importance of its role in the integration of Albania.

Dear friends, as we begin this conference, I am full of optimism for the enlightening discussions that await us. I would like to give the floor to Prime Minister Edi Rama to share his thoughts and perspectives with us, and it is with honour and enthusiasm that I declare the Ministerial Conference on Higher Education open.

Thank you for your attention!