For years, the so-called Balancer ensured that the representation of communities in the public administration reflected their share of the population, partially offsetting the effect of the university coefficient.
The new Law on Fair and Adequate Representation should establish a new framework for fair representation in the public sector, but unlike the Balancer, it does not provide for fixed quotas or sanctions against institutions that fail to ensure fair representation.
Instead, the law envisages ‘political measures’ to be specified through secondary legislation within six months of the law’s adoption by parliament.
This omission has been seized upon by opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, the Democratic Union for Albanians, DUI, and the Alliance for Albanians, which argue that implementation of the law will effectively be voluntary.
VLEN, the Albanian junior partner to the VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, insists the law is good and will guarantee equal opportunities and treatment for all citizens.
In the meantime, universities and their students are at the mercy of the rankings system.
The University of Tetovo told BIRN it has written to the Ministry of Education and the Supreme Court regarding the rankings but said it had not received a response.
“This unequal treatment of candidates constitutes clear discrimination, reducing the value of universities that have successfully completed all stages of accreditation, met the required teaching staff standards, and fulfilled all relevant criteria,” the university said in a written response for this story.
“Graduates of our university are employed without any problems anywhere in the world, yet they face discrimination in their own country.”
The situation facing Mother Teresa University is arguably even more alarming.
“The state established Mother Teresa University, accredited it, and recognised it as a public university, but because it has failed to update the ranking list, graduates of this university are treated with the lowest possible coefficient,” said Blendi Hodai, director of the grassroots NGO Forum for Educational Change.
“Students cannot be penalised because the ministry has not produced a new ranking,” Hodai told BIRN. “If a university has been established by the state and operates as part of the public system, then it is unacceptable for its graduates to be treated as less valuable in recruitment competitions organised by the state itself.”
Hodai said the huge range in coefficients hardly reflects the true quality of universities.
“Ss. Cyril and Methodius University has a coefficient equivalent to two or three other universities combined,” he said. “Perhaps that would make sense if it were among the best universities in the world. But today, when it is not even among the world’s top 500, top 1,000 or top 2,000 universities, this gap cannot easily be justified.”
“In practice, it favours one university while undervaluing the others, and it harms students because they are assessed not on their knowledge and abilities, but on an outdated coefficient.”
Suhejb Mehmedi, a student at Mother Teresa University and the university’s student advocate, agreed.
“It is not right for a degree from a public, accredited university to be assessed using the lowest coefficient,” said Mehmedi, 24.
“Assessment should be based on the quality of education, not on criteria that place students in an unequal position. This creates the feeling that our hard work and commitment are not being properly recognised.”
Mother Teresa University did not respond to requests for comment.
