By Ben Blushi
WHERE STUDENTS CAN FIND OUR UNIVERSITIES
Almost a year ago, I was invited to a conversation with students of language and literature at the University of Korca. There were no more than 12 students.
Twenty years ago, several hundred boys and girls studied in that branch, believing that a degree could get you a good job.
But today this is no longer true.
Not everyone is convinced that a university degree is enough to secure a job.
And the question for many families is, is it worth sending your child to college?
Does every type of branch and every type of school return the money invested in education?
I'm afraid not.
Conditioned by social complexes, families save to send their children to higher education, but this money, which could be invested elsewhere, in the vast majority of cases is never returned.
Fortunately, many parents are realizing this.
Very soon people will start giving up on diplomas.
Having a degree doesn't mean you have a guaranteed job, or a well-paid job.
In the Albanian market, a plumber earns more than a lawyer.
An electrician earns more than a teacher.
A chef earns more than a biologist.
A real estate agent earns more than an economist.
The builder of a ten-person brigade earns more than an architect.
If a family needs at least 50 thousand euros in four years to put a child through university, it takes ten times less to educate an electrician, and the possibility of him returning the investment is much faster.
In general, education around the world is in crisis, and in less than a decade, technological advances will not only close many jobs but will also close the laboratories that prepare people for work: the university itself.
Albania will be no exception.
If an ultra-leftist government does not come to power in the next ten years, taking money from taxes to alleviate social dramas, most universities will close.
They say that private universities are a little better.
As long as they remain open they should be a little better.
However, very soon they will also wrinkle as they have already wrinkled.
The first choice for Albanian children today is foreign universities, the second choice is private ones, and the third choice is public universities.
But very soon Albanian families will be faced with a very big dilemma:
Why does my child need a diploma?
I myself, if I were to go back 40 years, of course I would not choose the branch I chose, language and literature, which taught me nothing, but I probably would not choose to go to university at all.
Life has taught me more things than school.
Work has taught me that school doesn't teach you how to work.
Most people who graduated from school in the late 1990s never used their diplomas.
They did other jobs that they could do without a degree.
Today you can live much better by investing your education costs elsewhere, in a start-up or a family business or in tourism or agriculture.
So how is the university crisis solved?
I believe that no reform that does not expand the market is enough.
Albania's integration into the EU will further destroy our universities.
As an EU member state, Albanian children can study for free in any European country, which means that the costs a family pays today to take their son or daughter to Germany will be half as low.
This will take the last bite out of our public universities, but also our private ones.
Albania will have guaranteed education for its children, but will risk the closure of its universities.
Every time I talk to friends who run private universities, I tell them that the only way for them to keep their businesses open is to open the market to foreigners.
Our universities are the most isolated part of society. Even the poorest football teams have foreigners, not to mention restaurants, services, banks, or companies.
Strangely, universities seem like pure ethnic laboratories.
There are only Albanians there who don't learn.
Of course, Albania cannot attract German, Belgian, Slovenian, or perhaps even Turkish students.
But given its geographical location, climate, and low cost of living, Albania could become a cheap European hub for thousands of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Iraqi, Egyptian, Vietnamese, etc. students.
All of these countries send more than 200 million students to their universities every year. Maybe even more.
In all these countries, which have half the world's population, nearly 4 billion people, the middle class is growing rapidly. More and more people are emerging from poverty in China, India, Egypt, Nigeria, and Vietnam, where the economy is booming.
This means that in the next ten or twenty years, families will send even more children to higher education.
But so many children from middle-class Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani families who dream of studying in Europe cannot go to London, Paris, Berlin, or America, which is closing down as a university market.
In addition to isolationist policies in these countries, costs are much higher and quotas are very limited.
But some of them could come to Albania, as to a European country.
I am amazed at how private universities still spend money advertising in the small Albanian market, when they should be opening recruitment agencies in China, India or Pakistan or Egypt.
This should have been a national business. State-aided. State-led.
The government could explore these markets first to fill the public universities that are currently dying.
It is better for our universities to be maintained with Chinese and Indian money than with our taxes.
Of the 200 million Asian students who attend higher education every year, even 0.1 percent coming to Albania would be twice the total number of Albanian students.
The state could turn into an agency to recruit students from other countries through bilateral agreements.
Imagine if the dying University of Korca were a destination for Chinese students.
The University of Gjirokastë for Vietnamese, Vlora for Egyptians, who, by the way, are keeping our fishing industry afloat today, or Elbasan for Indians.
This educational migration not only revitalizes universities but can also turn into an economy for our underdeveloped cities themselves.
That's why I say that if we want a university, we need to find students, because even though there are teachers, there will always be fewer and fewer students. (A2 Televizion)
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