Type Public Rector Marjan Dema Location Pristina, Kosovo Address Prishtina 10000 Founded 1999 | Established 1999 Students 41.833 (2009-10) Campus Urban Total enrollment 1,356 (2011) | |
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Notable alumni Ibrahim Rugova, Fatmir Sejdiu, Ali Podrimja, Ramush Haradinaj, Isa Mustafa Similar University of Tirana, AAB University, University of Pristina, South East European University, University of Prizren Profiles | ||
The University of Pristina (Albanian: Universiteti i Prishtinës) is a public higher education institution located in Pristina, Kosovo. One of the successors of the historical University of Pristina, it comprises 14 faculties located in Pristina and three branches in other cities of Kosovo. Contained within the emblem is a translation of the name into Latin, Universitas Studiorum Prishtiniensis.
Contents
Overview
The University of Pristina is an Albanian-language higher education institution, emerged after the Kosovo War. It occupies the campus in Pristina, Kosovo, serving as the major university in the area of Kosovo. It is a member of the European University Association. It maintains contacts with Western European and American universities and institutions.
Statistics and university organisation
The academic year of the university runs from 1 October through 30 September, organised in two semesters, with 30 weeks of teaching per year.
About 3,000 students receive bachelor or master degrees every year at University of Pristina, the majority in social and human sciences. More than 50,000 have graduated from the university since its establishment.
Unlike most other European universities the university operates as a loose association of faculties, each with a legally autonomous status and administrative structure. This has been criticized by the World Bank as leading to a redundant duplication of programmes and facilities, hindering an effective prioritization of programmes.
History
The original university was opened in the Socialist Republic of Serbia, Yugoslavia, in the city of Pristina, for the academic year 1969–1970 and functioned as the University of Priština until 1999. However, owing to political upheaval there are separate Albanian and Serbian entities:
In 2003 the University in Pristina had been described as being "at the very core of political conflict and the self-esteem of Albanian Kosovars ". It was for many years accused by Serbian politicians and the Serbian media of promoting ethnic Albanian separatism in Kosovo, and following the rise to power of Slobodan Milošević it was purged of those deemed to be separatists. It was at this time that the university faculty split into Serbian and Albanian halves, with the Serbian staff controlling the campus and the sacked Albanian staff gone "underground" for much of the 1990s, providing education informally and in secret for Kosovo Albanian students.
Following NATO control over the territory of Kosovo, the Albanian faculty gained control of the campus after the end of the Kosovo War in 1999, while the Serbian faculty relocated first to central Serbia (from 1999 to 2001 the seat was in Kruševac) and two years later to the northern Kosovo (the seat is currently in Northern Kosovska Mitrovica).
Faculties and higher education schools
Academic units of the university are:
Pristina Summer University
In 2001, the university of Pristina began the establishment of Pristina Summer University. More than 4,000 local, regional and international students and more than 400 local and international professors participate in PSU.
Doctors of Honor
Notable alumni and faculty members
Criticism
The University of Prishtina has been criticized for its association with the political class, corruption, and lack of literature. According to a recent study by Preportr, a substantial part of Kosovo's government officials, including ministers, hold academic roles in higher education institutions, including the University of Prishtina. The literature in Albanian language is highly absent, and the available literature is largely outdated.
Some 15 high-profile politicians were serving as ministers or MPs in 2015, including the ministers of justice, education, and defense, and receiving salaries as full-time professors. Reformist Rector Ramadan Zejnullahu stripped them of their pay for work they did not perform. Another 80 or so professors were receiving double or triple salaries for teaching at multiple faculties or branches of the university in other cities in Kosovo. Attempts to stop this were overturned by the appeal court. Zejnullahu also chose to disregard a policy that let 1,000 children of war veterans or soldiers killed in action register for university without passing an entrance exam, believing it to be unfair and against university standards. After a year and a half, Zejnullahu was fired by the university steering board on 21 October 2015. Zejnullahu’s removal was reversed days later by Education Minister Arsim Bajrami, but his struggle made him a national symbol of Kosovo’s battle against nepotism and graft.
Two professors, Beqir Sadikaj and Zeqir Veselaj, who had earlier been identified as plagiarists were in 2015 elected as members to the 5-member Governing Council of the UP and voted to dismiss Rector Zejnullahu.
December 2013 arrests
On December 12, 2013, eleven officials of the university Faculty of Medicine were arrested for grade forgery. Arrested officials were physicians, professors, assistant professors, and administrative staff; some students were also arrested.
2014 student protest and resignation of Ibrahim Gashi
The 2014 student protest began when Kosovo media accused Rector Ibrahim Gashi and his staff of falsifying research and publishing scientific papers based on that false research to bolster their academic credentials. Gashi refused to resign after it was revealed he had published articles in predatory journals to meet the requirements for promotion to full professor. Student protesters became outraged after parliament failed to pass a vote demanding that Gashi resign, with coalition government political parties opposing the move. Gashi eventually resigned.